When Closet Case released the Jenny Overalls, I thought, “phewww, I’ve dodged a bullet”.

One less thing that needs to be added to my totally out-of-control sewing queue.

Because, you know, I’m a grown-up, not a child.

I can’t wear overalls, god damn it!!

Earworms…

But then, the Jenny Overalls tune just kept playing over and over in my head. I couldn’t escape it!

And Heather Lou makes everything just look so stylish.

Honestly, if I was still a teenager, I would probably be approaching the level of Closet Case fan-dom at which my exasperated mother would ask me “if Heather Lou jumped off a cliff, would you?”.

If Heather Lou wore a plastic bag with her signature mix of cool and pizzazz, I would probably want to wear that plastic bag too.

With clogs or strappy Roman sandals!

Of course I NEED pink overalls

And so these Jenny Overalls were born. Because that damn gorgeous pair of pink linen overalls on the pattern envelope just wouldn’t leave my mind.

It’s as though those pink overalls discovered my hidden chocolate stash and the two of them together just teamed up and kept whispering to me ceaselessly, “you know you want me, you know you want me”.

How on earth am I supposed to resist that?

So, being the impressionable person I am, I’d started to come around to the idea of Jenny overalls. I told myself, if I just make the Jenny overalls in denim, it’s really just a fashion forward pair of jeans.

Wherever I would wear jeans, I could wear overalls instead.

Right?

Are you still with me on the waves of self-justification here?

Next, I saw this amazing mint green 9 oz Cone Mills denim from Threadbare Fabrics. The colour pink disappeared from my mind and I knew that the fabric and pattern goddesses had aligned to place these two wonderful things within my sewing universe.

And so, here we go…

My Jenny Overalls

My Jenny overalls are version A (overalls with the cropped leg). I sewed a size 12 at the waist, grading to size 10 at the bust and hips. In the end, I had to use a little bit of the seam allowance for a touch more room around the hips, so a size 12 from the waist down might have been better.

I made a quick muslin of the pants only, which also led to me doing a flat pubis adjustment. Using, of course, the free pants fitting guide from Closet Case Patterns.

But, apart from those very minor adjustments, this is pretty much the fit right out of the packet for me.

I found, in the end, that the waistband gaped a tiny bit at the back. I was able to rectify this with button placement, so no issues for this version. But if I make them again (speaking of which have you seen Mia’s version with the detachable bib, at @sewnorth on instagram. Sewing dreams!!), I might add a slight curve to the back waistband piece.

Having worn them, I would say that on my body, I could have even added another centimetre or so to the rise, in order to drop the crotch a little lower, just to maximize comfort. As they are, it’s not uncomfortable, but I do feel that the crotch is there, if that makes any sense!

Seam allowance silliness

A quick word of warning here for silly sewists.

Like me!

The Jenny Overalls cleverly incorporate a one inch seam allowance along the side seam for two purposes. First, to provide a bit of extra room for fitting. Second, to help with the installation of the side closure. For some reason, I totally missed the second reason. So once I knew the fit was fine, I decided to save a little bit of fabric by trimming the seam allowance on my pattern pieces down to a regular 5/8ths.

This made sewing the hip closures unnecessarily fiddly. So, don’t second-guess the instructions. You need that one inch seam allowance. Closet Case know what they are doing.

Top stitch happy

One of the great things about the Jenny overalls pattern is that there are about a million different ways you could top stitch these babies for different aesthetic effects. The pattern itself suggests a few optional variations, such as a top-stitched faux fly and topstitching around the entire pocket bag for a patch pocket-like effect.

Since I’d gone for full-on contrasting top stitching, I wanted to do my top stitching in a way which was clearly visible but not too over the top. So I decided to go with simple jeans-style top-stitching along the crotch seam, together with top stitching down the side seam.

Achieving these specific top stitching goals required switching the pattern assembly order somewhat from that contained in the Jenny Overalls instructions.

So, in case anyone else is interested but too tired to think it through themselves,  I first sewed the back crotch seam, then the front crotch seam (making sure to keep the top stitching on the same side of the seam for both), then the side seams (with their closures) and finally the inseam.

And, voilà, a happy little pair of high-waisted overalls with my personal top stitching dreams came into existence!

Jenny Overalls Button Hip Variation

I knew right from the outset that I wanted a button hip closure for my Jenny Overalls as I love the vintage vibe it creates. And I had recently ordered 30 jeans buttons for my Seamwork Audrey, so I had plenty lying around saying “hammer me, it’s fun”!!

I followed the Closet Case tutorial for completing the hip button variation. I found it a little fiddly (mostly due to my self-induced lack of seam allowance), but nothing too challenging.

One little thing which I will note that is implicit in the Closet Case hip button tutorial but not expressly noted is that you have to use the two piece waist band (waistband pieces Q1 and Q2), rather than the single waistband piece (P).

Because, you know, you need the button thing happening on both sides.

This is clearly so obvious that it doesn’t really require specification. But, nonetheless, I did have a little moment when I was cutting my pieces out, before I’d really stopped to think about construction methods and details, when I was momentarily confused as to which waistband pieces I needed if I wanted buttons!

Another thing worth mentioning is that if you follow the suggestion on the Closet Case tutorial for slightly widening your fly shield so that your buttonholes remain completely covered by it on the inside, you should also lengthen your back waistband piece by the same amount.

You will see here that I have followed the Closet Case tutorial exactly and put in three buttons. But I have since seen some pants versions cropping up with four buttons added, which I think is also a great look.

Glamazon time

So, how do these “out of my comfort zone” Jenny overalls make me feel?

Like I have the longest god damn legs in the world!!!

Seriously, I’m not at all tall (167cm), but this high waist just makes it feel like my legs go on forever…

I love it!

Yet, at the same time that I feel kind of glamorous in these Jenny overalls, I also have a variation of the “Bob the builder” theme song (AKA “Beck the builder), running over and over in my head. So I guess I feel like a glamorous Ms. Fix it in these!

Oh and one final thing before signing out – this Cone denim is amazing! This was my first time that I’d ordered non-stretch Cone denim (read all about my love for the stretch variation in my Persephone Pants post). I was not disappointed. These photos were actually taken after I had worn my Jenny overalls for two days straight, so they really hold their shape and continue to look crisp, even with wear!

Stylin’ it

So, I’m guessing you can all see where I’m drawing my inspiration with the striped tee styling. But, I’m trying to decide whether there can be such a thing as an overall equivalent of the “half-tuck” because I totally love wearing my Jenny overalls with my cropped Inari tee so that it looks like overalls at the front but pants at the back.

What do you think?

Can this be a thing or have I lost the plot??

 

Oh and, finally, a little P.S! If you like to get your blog hits through Bloglovin’, feel free to follow me over there: you can find me here. And you can find me on Instagram here.