I bought some corduroy on a market a year or so ago and was like: pants for me! But then I brought it home and washed it and discovered that I hadn’t bought enough because corduroy has a nap and it looked silly to put things on sideways *insert sad trumpet noises*. Some time later, I went back to the fabric market and found a different dark corduroy (it’s not black, but it’s not .. not?). I didn’t take any chances and bought more than enough for dungarees so I could make those, and more!
The dungarees are based mostly on the Burda Style 12/2022 model 1 pants pattern (from these plaid pants) and on this shorts dungaree flap. I made some changes to the pattern that I don’t particularly recall, although I remember changing it to a side opening. I included jeans style back pockets and the same pocket shape on the front of the bib-flap. This corduroy is very stretchy so I was afraid to use a woven fabric for the lining pieces and grabbed a knit in the end. The bib, pockets, waistband and straps are lined with this stripy knit fabric.
There were two problems with getting this thing done: making choices & executing them and getting the buttonholer to work . I hemmed and hawed over the bib shape, the pocket shape and placement, how to put it on the fabric, everything. This makes a project take so much longer than expected, also when it takes you a week or so between the major steps to actually finish it. Throw it in the corner when you haven’t exactly figured out how to get that pesky waistband attached, how to hem it, stuff like that.
The other major thing was that I wanted to add the straps using buttons and I wanted my imported Greist buttonholer to do the work for me. Those templates would make it so easy to make a pretty (keyhole) buttonhole, I thought. It took trying it out on three machines, a lot of cursing and finally taking it apart and cleaning the sticky grease out to get it to function. I’m so very proud that I managed though (this was my third try). It’s now stored next to the one machine that could make it work, a 1901 Singer 28, hand-crank vibrating shuttle sewing machine. Check out how it makes buttonholes!
All in all, I really like these pants. The corduroy is comfortable, the straps are nice, dungarees are generally great. The only downside is what to wear underneath, so I’m now knitting a ‘shorter’ sweater that can go under the dungarees. Got to keep busy after all!