Potato Technology 2025 Collection Part Two
Part Two: Sewing Overalls Step by Step
I’ve been looking at how to make a custom overalls pattern, based on drafting techniques, which I began with this post: Drafting Shortalls from Scratch. But how to construct them? Well, that’s what I plan to explore today! To do this, yesterday, I cut out another pair of overalls, this time for the fall-winter-spring season, to retrace my steps.
Step One
With your pieces cut out according to your measurements, you should have four leg pieces – two front and two back. The next two bib pieces should be cut out, with the back piece cut a bit differently to accommodate the straps. This is to anchor the straps at the middle of your shoulders to keep the overalls securely on your frame.
Step Two
I like to begin with the pants or shorts portion of an overall project, because they are foundational to the silhouette. I like to pin the leg pieces together to try on before sewing. Remember to leave several inches of the outer thigh seams pinned for the flies and buttons.
Once you know that the pieces will fit, with seam allowance accounted for, I begin sewing the leg pieces together, leaving out the crotch seam and the top part of the inseam, to attach the two pieces as one pair of pants. After these have been sewn together and I have tried them on, I will move on to the bib.
Step Three
For less bulk, I like to cut the seams of the crotch portion and leg seams that will join together, with pinking shears, to make my hems less thick. This lets the sewing machine, or your hand sewing needle, pass through the seam with ease, and is more comfortable to wear.
How do you join pants? Well, you leave the top of the inseam open so that those two inseams will line up together, making the two legs join at the top where the pelvis is. Remember this is a bifurcated garment, so you want your final shape to be two tubes, joined to make one tube at the top. I’ve messed this up several times; it’s okay even if you sew it wrong the first thousand times. That is what mockups and seam rippers are for!
Step Four
For the bib of these overalls pictured above, they were cut into short pieces, so I just had to join these pieces together. I added a facing to the inside of the bibs, which is just a piece of the fabric’s right side facing inside, so that the bibs are finished cleaner around the neckline.
I inserted the straps between the facing and the bib for a clean and secure stitch. The straps were finished with a loop on either side of the front bib to tie around, instead of the metal fastenings. I was inspired by Lucy and Yak Dungarees.
Step Five
The final touches are the bias tape, the side buttons, and the five pockets. I find the bias tape the most mundane thing; therefore, I choose to do that next, which is a 1-2″ ribbon of the fabric used to finish the raw edges still exposed on the sides.
Step Six
Next, I created the flies on either side by folding over the fabric to make the button placket and button hole placket. This was planned out when I cut out the overalls. After making the button holes and finishing them with either the machine or by hand, I mark out on the other side where the holes overlap to mark for buttons.
Step Seven
Finally, I sew the pockets. I chose a large, half-rounded bib pocket on the front, two smaller rectangle pockets on the backside, and medium side pockets sewn across the hip. Next? Enjoy your creation and feel a sense of accomplishment. You did something hard, and probably felt lost at times, but you persevered to learn a new skill. It’s not cringeworthy to try. So go for it! ❤
Drafting Shortalls from Scratch
Did you know, that through simple measurements, reference photos, and a few tools, you can draft your own clothes? Not just a t-shirt or a circle skirt, but big projects!
That’s how I have made some of my most ambitious projects, no patterns required!
What is Pattern Drafting?
A pattern can be easily made with a tape measure, pencil, and the key places to measure. For my overalls, I was most concerned with the width of the bib, the length of the rise from the top of the bib to the crotch curve, the width of the hip from the center of your body to the end of your hip. You can also measure the circumference of your hips but I think having separate measurments for the front of the pants compared to the back of the pants. The back is usually wider.
For the overalls, I worked in four pieces. Front left, front right, back right, and back left. To do this I marked out the front left and front right on the fabric, accounting for the crotch seam which is part of the leg. I added a 2-3 inches to the width of the hip measurement of each of the four pieces to make the curve with my french curve.
When planning pants, keep in mind that you don’t need as much inseam as you think to make shorts. What you will need is a long rise because you can always cut more, so be cautious and double check the measurments of your rise.
Now for the bib, the top portion of the overalls, I plotted the width of the bib above the pants portion and with pencil I carefully drew a tapered curve upward. I cut this extra long to have excess fabric to fold over to make the facing. This fabric is like a lining for the top of the bib, the part you are most likely to see.
Always use pencil or a tailors chalk and take your time. Using a mock up fabric is a great idea to get the cut right. After repeating this for both front pieces, remember to adjust the width of the hip for the seat of your pants, all while remembering to account for the french curve line of the inseam.
After cutting all for pieces you will need to set aside fabric for pockets, I added 5 to mine. A bib pocket, two side-front pockets, and two back pockets. You will need fabric for the straps, measure accordingly based on the height of the bib, over your shoulder and to the back bib, remembering to add more length to tie.
Next is scrap scavenging! You will need small pieces for the loops to tie the straps around on the front bib. This will call for two loops. You will also need bias tape sized pieces to finish the edges of the overalls on the bib. Finally, save some fabric for the button flies on either side of the overall legs to help you get in and out of the garment.
It’s a lot of information to sift through but I hope this small tutorial will help you sew overalls if you wish with free instructions. I will be following up with a second post that explains the order of operation, to make sense of all these pieces, to help these fabric pieces transform into a wearable garment you can enjoy!
Can I Make Mid-Size Overalls from 1 Yard of Fabric?
Do you ever think of something you’ve accomplished and wonder if you could do it even smaller? Well, I set a challenge for myself. A year ago, I wrote about creating a summer dress with a button-front from less than 1.5 yards of fabric. That post inspired this one, as this summer I was able to squeak out a pair of shortalls (overall shorts) from a yard of 59″ stretch twill from Mood Fabrics. This was not my first overall attempt, but I think my most ambitious because this yardage was for a pair of shorts with some abundant pockets, but I changed my mind after seeing a variety of overalls styled for spring and summer. I’ve owned this style before in denim. My favorite version I’ve purchased was a pair of vintage ’90s denim shortalls that were baggy and breathable for those swampy summer days. The more fitted versions I’ve found in stores in recent years are not my cup of tea, because for me, overalls are best when they are oversized.
When I cut these overalls out, I had just completed my draft of an overalls pattern from 2 yards of 44″ cotton twill from Kokka Fabrics, and I was itching to make more without fabric shopping, so I went for a dig in my fabric/yarn closet. It’s more of an antique clothing press, to be fair. This is where I found my gold – 1 yard of 59″ across cotton twill in a fun pattern, sturdy enough for a bottom weight garment with just enough fabric to cut the shorts, the bib, the straps. That was all I could muster for sure. I set aside the project and got to work on my Kokka Fabric project, which taught me so many things about sewing overalls that I had overlooked in past attempts.
Firstly, the back bib is not a rectangle. Secondly, a facing for the bib makes the project feel more professional. Thirdly, the buttons on the side need to be properly assembled with the fly for the right stability. Finishing the edges with twill tape made from the project’s fabric helped create a crisp look. Fourth, the overalls need pockets in order for the garment to sit well on the body. Lastly, I did not accomplish these with my 1-yard of fabric overalls. I took some shortcuts.
I ran out of fabric for the pockets, the fly, and the twill tape. To remedy this, I kept the shape to a romper style and less of a traditional overall. The bib is rectangular on both the front and back. The pockets were added from a previous project; I upcycled shorts into pockets. The side does not have any fastening, instead I sewed up the seam and let the boxy cut of the shorts and stretch of the fabric help me compensate for my lack of fabric.
So if this project is a pair of overalls that is not a traditional overall, but more of a romper, why am I writing about this?
Well, because the finished product is a wonderfully comfortable garment, practical for many things – gardening, sewing, cooking, knitting, farmers market, apple picking, cleaning, walking in the woods, going to the beach, etc – and I made it without being an expert. I made this garment through hand sewing, so you don’t even need a sewing machine if it’s out of your current budget. I purchased this fabric on sale for 10 USD/yard. I used less than a spool of thread, and repurposed the pockets from an item in my closet that I didn’t want to wear anymore. Have you seen the price of overalls? They are expensive, even the short version. A low-quality version will still set you back 30 USD.
I made these with 10 USD of fabric for a midsize frame, so this is accessible to all of us, not just the slim people. A lot of popular and cheap DIYs on the internet are made for very small bodies, which makes me nervous that if I try it, it will be expensive, but this wasn’t. Making these overalls was incredibly rewarding, too. These aren’t even the best pair I’ve made this summer, I’ll share the other ones soon! But these ones will have a special place in my heart because they are unique, comfortable, and made with my own hands. So if you have an idea of how you could make something by hand, make it happen! It’s a lot easier than you think, a great learning experience, and there are tons of resources here online to help you succeed!
Will I Wear A Knit Tank?
This is a follow-up to my recent post, ‘Will I Wear a Knit T-shirt?’, where I examined the fibers and wearability of a knit t-shirt and discussed whether this summer knit project could be a suitable option. Since then, I finished and got to wear a new piece of knitwear – my first knit tank top. I wore it in July, in full humidity with highs in the upper 80s to low 90s Fahrenheit. My experience surprised me – I said before that my knit t-shirts are wonderfully comfortable, but have a temperature and humidity limit for me, but the tank top surprised me!
I think it was the high pima cotton content in the Knit Picks Comfy – a 75% Pima Cotton and 25% Acrylic mixture that uplifted the breathability for me. I was melting in the hot sun, but the air flow and temperature regulation were spectacular! This tank had delicate straps but did not have a lacy stitch or open weave. It was constructed with regular knit and purl stitches, with sections that had double layers of yarn due to two sections of colorwork graphics on the front and back.
With Pima Cotton, Silk, Bamboo, or Linen as the primary fiber, or a blend of these natural fibers, I believe knit tanks are just as breathable as woven fabric, and for sure more breathable than moisture-wicking tech fabrics, which are polyester. No, I wouldn’t work out in this top, but there is something to say for a garment that is comfy and breathable for those long summer days. It was a simple stitch-up up only calling for two hanks of 100-gram worsted-weight yarn, about 240 yards, with the addition of 1/3 or 40 yards of the accent yarn, another cotton-acrylic worsted-weight blend from Loops and Threads. You can make a tank like this for 30 USD or less, and this is a size large. So if you have a small amount of yarn, you can do a lot with it!
Do you think a knit tank would be an item you would wear?
Knitting a Dress for the First Time
Knitting a dress, how hard can it be right? It was actually pretty managable garment as an intermediate knitter. I would not recommend unless you have made a sweater before but would definitely recommend knitting a dress if you want a soft and stretchy garment that hugs you!
Inspiration
I have made plenty of dresses over the past 5 years, but they have all been cut and sewn from fabric. Knitting kicks it up a notch, asking you to assemble the dress, but make the fabric to boot. I thought it would be silly to try until I discovered some lovely crochet designers on You Tube who make with imagination!
I was inspired by Mama Gwen of TL Yarn Crafts to give designing a knit dress a try. She makes such beautiful dresses all from self-drafted patterns in knit and crochet. Along with Dana from Blondie Knots. Her Coachella scrap two piece outfit helped me have the boost of confidence to try something new.
Materials
Last summer at Joann, before the shenanigans began, I purchased 14 Big Twist Cotton 50g skeins on a sale with the intention of knitting a top. Many months later, this yarn was sitting in my stash with my mind uncertain if the punchy color changing yarn was my cup of tea for a cotton knit top. But a dress? Yes, that could work. Did I have enough yarn though? I’d have to make it so because there was no more being sold.
Because of the circumstances, I decided this dress would be my goodbye to Big Twist.
Design
I knew from sewing, my design would need to be a dress that was either tubular or empire waist to suit my body shape. I decided to knit this on US 7 needles, straight needles. Sometimes I would shift to circular, but this was not knit in the round. With the combination of yarn minders, a measuring tape and patience this dress came together!
To start I knew I wanted the bodice to be the anchor I worked out from so I cast on stitches to work horizontally. From the bodice, I then added one strap to plan the width and placement of the top. I was uncertain how much yardage the skirt would consume, therefore I paused to determine sleeves later.
My plan for the skirt was to knit a section by casting on the bottom of the bodice, adding stitches to increase width until I finished a skein. Repeat and fill out the row by picking up stitches to join the sections vertically into a tube. I continued on, and on until weeks later I had a skirt but panicked that I was not going to achieve my desired length and second sleeve!
I decided to pull a teal yarn from my Landscape Painting with Yarn project. This hue pulled the cool tones into harmony in a pleasing way. I used two skeins of this teal color and then finished with the original Water Lily tonal yarn. I finished the second sleeve and tried on the piece with relative ease. There was one fit issue – plunging neckline. But it was a lovely, cozy knit from scratch dress!
The final touches to this project were addressing the neckline and the sleeves which were set too deep. I cast on to the neckline to fill in the gap and provided structure to the straps with several rows of decreases to give the dress a cap sleeve befitting my vision.
Final Thoughts
I am definitely making more dresses with knit! It’s far more pleasant than sewing if you want a comfy yet elegant style. You have both control of the drape and the fabric design. It’s your world, as Bob Ross would say.
This project was more than a goodbye to Big Twist, it was a new chapter for me. I began this journey 5 years ago to learn how to make and now I feel empowered by knowing I can make my own clothes, not just with fabric but with skeins of yarn and needles. It has been a wonderful journey of discovery!
If you want to knit a dress, I’d say go for it! If you’re a beginner, make one but not as your first project – you will be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of time this project took. It was weeks of work that as a beginner, would have scared me. In time I know you can do it though! ❤
Potato Technology Spring Knitwear 2025
From L to R: Water Lily Swirl Dress, Peterborough to Saskatchewan Knit Tee, Painted Sunsets Knit Shorts
Structure and Flow: Sewing in Two Minds
Like I said in my 2025 So Far Has Been a Creative Slump, I am sharing the projects I’ve hidden away in my closet and the photos buried in my gallery. It’s time to catch up on this blog on what I’ve been sewing, because it’s been a journey of new discoveries.
Go With the Flow
In 2022, Kyle gave me a unique birthday present. He curated a mystery box of fabric for me to do my own “Project Runway” challenge – one of those fabrics was this sheer wheat colored criss-cross fabric. It has lived in my stash ever since. It was a fabric that scared me but intrigued me. It’s a stretch mesh burnout pattern, and for over a year, I was baffled at how to sew it without destroying it.
Even so, after I sewed it into a garment, how would I apply it? Would it be a garment that would be sewn layered on top of an opaque fabric? What would that look like? Should I use a high contrast fabric or something similar in tone? It stumped me. I lived with it a bit more in my stash, and it came with me through the move and into the fall once more. In 2024, after two years, I had an idea – sheer layering. A garment I could wear under or over other pieces to add dimension and disguise the oatmeal color that I was concerned would wash me out.
My decision was to make a shirt. I thought making it a “basic” would provide the most opportunity to style it in my wardrobe. I sewed the delicate fabric with my machine very slowly. I relaxed the tension of the thread and progressed delicately, ready to hand-sew at any moment of panic. It was not terrifying; it was possible.
Structure of a Bodice – Armor
Many years ago, back in 2021 (four years ago, what?!) I crafted a structured dress, based on Lizzie Bennet’s dress, when Charlotte Lucas announces her marriage to Mr. Collins. It was a vest and a skirt, with buttons and a collar. It was ambitious but rubbish, yet a project I can’t stop thinking about how I could have made it better.
Enter this fabric and this bodice shape. It looks like an armor piece made of vintage ditzy flower fabric, lined with muslin. I wanted to reclaim what I learned in 2021, but try again in 2025, since the failure of my early projects made me shrink back to “easy” projects. I’ve made things that have challenged me a little bit, but not a true experiment. Constant growth is painful. Think of your body after consistent workouts, you’re going to hurt. It’s part of the process of getting stronger, and it feels at times like a negative experience. That feeling ground me down. I was tired of the learning experiences that felt more like loss and waste than an expression of crafting and artistry. It’s human, it’s passion, how can we not want the fruit of our labor to produce something good?
I made this dress slowly, over several weeks, while working on other projects, while being sick. It was a slow, steady, careful process to make a dress that would bring me joy from the creation and the wearing. The other thing I had to wrestle with, in this project, was shaking off the demons of my Lizzie Bennet dress. It was a dress I felt pretty in, but that I took a lot of crap for my appearance when I wore it out. It was structured, fitted, and flowy. The waist was not perfectly matched to the small of my waist, due to my lack of tailoring knowledge. This dress prompted a stranger to ask me when I was due, and then doubled down that I looked pregnant. I wasn’t pregnant, so to her, I looked fat. Thanks lady.
It was rude and such a breach of boundaries. Don’t ask random strangers if they are pregnant; wait for them to clearly tell you. It feels like a slap in the face for so many toxic culture reasons, the main one is the unwanted comment on your body with the double standard of “pregnancy being the most beautiful,” but don’t look pregnant, aka don’t be fat, because the zeitgeist is fat-phobic. I got rid of the dress and don’t have any photos saved of the dress; that’s how much this experience ruined the dress for me. I lacked the confidence to brush it off. I didn’t understand my body’s proportions and lines, therefore, I blamed my body and myself for the dress not working, instead of my tailoring skills being the problem.
2025 Style – Layering and Reclaiming
I chose to confront this feminine dress style once again. I knew it would clash with the natural lines of my body. I don’t have an hourglass body shape, which this fit and flare dress calls for. I’ve been scared to wear it, but I am challenging myself to try. I layered the sheer shirt I made in 2024 with this dress and a belt to create balance. It’s going to take time to get comfortable, for sure.
The dress not only has this flowy skirt, but it is fully lined, and the front gathering has been tracked down with stitches to reduce waist bulk. I also added eyelets and lacing at the back of the garment to define the waist, Lastly, I added a belt to my waist, which I don’t enjoy wearing, but the effect of pulling the eye to the waist should reduce unwanted comments, I hope. I like the contrast of these garments together. They have flow and structure. Together they create a complete thought, and in my opinion, look like designs with a point of view, which is what I am aiming for in my designs 2025.
Remaking My First Sewing Project Four Years Later
Last September, I felt this aching in my creative heart to make what I didn’t make well the first go around. A project that some would say was insane to attempt as a beginner because of the difficult nature of velvet and the frustration that is sewing with stretch fabric. The dress pictured below was my first wearable garment. I saw the same purple stretch fabric on sale for Halloween at my local Joann’s and my heart skipped a beat. It still exists – I could try again!
You see the first dress I made was constructed so poorly that I ended up cutting it down into a skirt because I was embarrassed to continue wearing it out. After all, the bodice was bunching up and gathered strangely in the back. I lacked the confidence to keep going and try to alter the dress for success. I see now that it would have been an easy make to take out the gathers and bunches of fabric for clean seams, but that kind of thought came with trial and error. I needed a bit more experience and patience to make it right, and at the time in 2020, my younger self was not willing to wait.
But what if I am living in the past? My mind thought, maybe I should let it be and let the dress be a learning experience. I put the purple velvet down and left it, it was not on sale, it would be a sizeable impulse purchase at 15.99 a yard for 4 yards. I can’t justify 60 USD for a passing whim, that would be a poor use of money. So I left the daydream and moved on. Still thinking about that fabric. Another few weeks passed, finding myself in my local Joann’s again. It was my favorite place to explore. I went to the shopping plaza over the weekend where Joann’s remains live boarded up with the lights still on. It was eerie. I found myself thinking about what was blocked off inside? Was the fabric slumbering in the bolts, waiting to be made into something new? Would the yarn ever find a home in a fiber artist’s hands? It felt like a mistake, a bad dream, but it was not. It is over and now it is just a memory.
Anyway, on the second trip to Joann’s during the Halloween sales, I found my purple beloved. The bolt was still full, now marked down to 7 USD a yard. But this time I couldn’t get the project out of my mind. I’m glad I did give in to the creative urge or this project would be left without an ending. At the time, I had no idea Joann’s was going to go under. I thought I had plenty of time to remake this when in reality the window was closing. As I worked on this dress in 2025, I followed Joann’s story with frustration and weight of expectation. This remake is the final try, for this fabric I will never find again.
I made a different dress from the original and that surprised me. I believed going into the remake project that I would duplicate the same dress but with better technique. Instead, it was a project of feel. This time, I had a dress form I could drape the garment on. I had fabric clips with securely held the the slippery fabric together while on the dress form or for a quick test of fit on my own form. This time I understood proportion and where this dress would fit into my wardrobe instead of making a dress that only went with my moto jacket. I reinforced the shoulders and was thoughtful about my stitching, to make the garment strong. I added darts to pull the dress in where it was fitting baggy instead of leaving it like a velvet sack.
It became something new and I am okay with that. None of us are the same as we were years ago, we grow and evolve with every passing year. Making a dress for now, with the spirit and the fabric of my first garment, but with a new neckline and a new fit I think is an inevitability of learning and growth. I had the patience this time to try on the dress, mark what was not fitting right, and go back to work until it was correct. That was not something I was willing to do when I started, because it was all so new and confusing, but with time and practice, those new concepts became a familiar old friend. Like this tan carpet. It wasn’t until I looked at the 2020 mirror photo and the 2025 mirror photo that I saw it. The carpet in the house we bought looks just like the carpet in our apartment in Meadville. How random is that?
I have one more section of the purple velvet left over that I plan to make something with, possibly a mini dress, a blouse, or maybe a jacket. I think knowing this fabric is a relic now, makes me feel unwilling to finish this scrap project, because once it is done. I’m going to feel like my time experimenting with fabric from my first craft store is done. A chapter of my sewing life is over, and I hate saying goodbye. I’m a sentimental person. When things end, I take it hard. I dwell on the loss and muse on it. It might be unhealthy. It certainly makes life harder as a person who wants to keep things alive that are gone, it’s why I think I was drawn to study history in college.
As I keep making things, some of these projects become an archive of crafting past. What are some things in your own life that have moved from the present to part of your past? Does it surprise you to consider these things as your history instead of your current story? Thank you, reader, for joining me again down this sewing memory lane. I hope you have a wonderful day!
One Rabbit Riot 