Heyday Dungarees

It’s no secret that I have recently become a huge dungarees fan… hilariously so has my sister-in-law. She was telling me about a pair of red dungarees she fancied and me being me of course went “nah, don’t buy them I’ll make you a pair”. After a very quick search we came upon the Heyday pattern from MadeByJacksMum and within an hour of us first discussing it we had brought the pattern and some red canvas fabric and were already taping the pattern sheets together.

This dungaree pattern is fabulous. Its got a casual loose fit to it with a tie front strap and up to 5 patch optional patch pockets. I had to make a significant alteration to the pattern for my sister-in-law because being 6ft tall means that frankly any pattern is going to be too short for her. It was a really simple adjustment though, as the pattern has 2 lines drawn on it for lengthening and shortening (one on the leg and one on the body). The pattern also states that the pattern is made for someone who is 5″5 which made figuring out how much to extend it by really easy. I knew I needed to extend the pattern by 6″ so I split this between the 2 lengthening sections (as she is proportionately very tall rather than being long in the body/leg)

After I made her red pair I was dying for a pair of my own… but I knew the fabric had to be right. I love a print but wanted to make sure it was going to be one that looked great in such a large quantity. So when I made my #2019makenine pledge at the beginning of the year I included them too and began keeping my eyes pealed. When I spotted the new dinosaur print canvas by Art Gallery I immediately fell in love and knew this was exactly the project it would be perfect for.

When the fabric arrived, I immediately went about cutting out. (I literally couldn’t hold myself back, far too excited) Unlike my sister-in-law I am of very average height at 5″5 so I made myself a standard length size large. The fabric was nice and wide so I managed to cut all the pieces out of just 2 meters, it was a squeeze but I made it fit (and without any of the pieces being the wrong way up on the print)

I still cannot get my head around how quick and easy these dungarees are to sew together. The pockets are the most time consuming part (although totally worth the time and effort because pockets make everything better!) And then they are just amazingly simple to wear too, I don’t have many things in my wardrobe I can just throw on, so they’re a joy to have. Given the time of year I’m mostly teaming them with long sleeve tops but when the spring finally appears I look forward to trying them out with some shorter/sleeveless options.

One of my main resolutions for this year was to make some bolder styling choices. Whilst prepping for this photoshoot I knew these dungarees was an outfit that would really work well with this plan. I initially picked the top and shoes thinking it would look bonkers, and yet couldn’t believe how cool it looked (a term I wouldn’t usually use for how I look). I would usually have paired a statement garment like this with something very neutral and plain so the garment can shine but actually the bright colours and print of this top makes the garment stand out even more (whilst also giving off that art teacher vibe)

I took a risk, and it massively paid off… which just went to show me that I really need to keep this up. So stay tuned for some more bonkers styling and fingers crossed a lot more of my #2019makenine projects

Ps. I will update you all with a photo of my sis-in-law in her dungarees at some point but she’s currently off jetsetting around the world so I have to wait unfortunately.