Dungaree Dress - Free Pattern

It's no secret that dungaree dresses are super popular now in both the sewing world and the fashion world. 

I personally am on the fence about the whole dungarees thing, on the one hand its easy to throw on and wear but on the other hand it kind of makes me feel like an over grown child, plus peeing in trouser dungarees is not the one! But I still wanted to make myself some.

Now as you know I'm a bit of a spendthrift when it comes to sewing! I blame it on being on a pretty tight budget for two years whilst we payed for our wedding. Plus I always think I'd rather spend my money on fabric! 

So whilst there is a very popular dungaree dress pattern out there [Which I've heard very good things about BTW] I didn't want to spend my pennies on it. Especially seen as dungarees are such a simple silhouette that I could probably draft one myself. 

As it goes I didn't have too! Whilst perusing Pinterest I found a link to Pootle and Makes blog and saw she'd made some dungarees from a free pattern by Sew Now Mag! [the templates are available here]  

Naturally as soon as I wanted to print the dammed pattern my printer decided to throw a hissy fit and generally faff around. That thing hates me, yesterday it printed something two hours after I wanted it too......I was sat alone watching American crime story so I think you can imagine how much I jumped when the printer started up!

Because I only printed the templates and didn't have a copy of the magazine, that meant I didn't have the instructions. Which isn't a huge deal because its fairly simple construction wise but it did mean I have to message pootle and make to get her views on how the sizing is. In the end I went for a size 12. The fit is okay but I think I would like a bit more ease in the hip area.

The pattern originally had patch pockets to put on the front of your hips but I didn't like those so I went traditional and drafted this front patch pocket. I also added in a centre and back seam because I wanted the traditional look. Thinking about it I didn't add in any seam allowance for these so that might be why I need more ease in the hips!

I was going to do flat felled seams but I couldn't work out how to do it and get it central and I knew if the seam was off centre it would give me some serious twitchy eye. so In the end I sewed the seam normally and then stitched up either side of the seam line. I'm not sure what this technique is called but I want to say "french stitching"? although I could be wrong. As a bonus this way also secures the seam allowances down.  

I didn't have any dungaree clips so I just used buttons from my stash! [The buttons were also recycled from an old coat]

There is a deep front and back facing that lines the top portion of the dress and leaves a really clean finish. For the facing I use a cotton that I got from a carboot. Its not a print I love so its nice to use it up on a facing.

I did a lot of white top stitching on this to bring out the white flecks in the fabric. Speaking of the fabric I have zero idea what it is, I brought it at a car boot on a whim [I think there is like 3m of it and I paid 50p?] Anyway I though it was a cotton but its a bit harder? Which makes me think its upholstery fabric? The other thing that makes me think its upholstery fabric is that you can't set fire to it, so I think its one of those fire resistant ones.

But I think it looks a bit like denim and as a bonus if i do end up on fire it'll go out very quickly. Every cloud eh?

All in all I do like it and I think its a great pattern especially seen as its free!!!! 

And I'm hoping that it will transition from winter to summer just by changing what top I wear under it. 

Speaking of summer I CANNOT wait to wear all of my summer dresses again!! I'm buzzing! Although it does make me wonder if I should start packing up half of my wardrobe and changing it over? 

Does anyone else change over their wardrobe? How do you like it and where do you store the out of season clothes?

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx