To make a pair of overalls. . .

My little sister has really enjoyed wearing overalls lately. So while she was at camp I made her this overall dress. I also happened to find this overall pattern, in the stash of 70's and 80's patterns I happen to have.

I thought the pattern was cute, and better yet, it was actually the right size! (so often I have found cute patterns that are the wrong size!) As soon as I found this pattern I just knew I would have to make my sister a pair of overalls.. I just ran out of time while she was at camp. I still wanted to make her overalls, though, so last week I finally got around to it.

Well, sort of. As you can see, the overalls turned into a dress. I had the blue, teal, and red plaid in my stash, and I couldn't figure out what to use it for. Until my sister and I came across a plaid overall dress in the American Girl catalogue.

I decided I had to make something similar. So, I used the overall pattern I had for the bodice, and then added a full skirt.  Now my favorite part of the American Girl dress was the back. The criss-crossed straps and the buttons at the waistband are the details that "made" this dress for me. So I did my best to replicate them.

The front of my sister's dress turned out pretty cute too, although slightly accidental. 

Before I sewed the buttons on I had my little sister try on the dress to make sure it fit right. Well, most of it fit perfectly, but the straps were way to long! So, rather than shorten them I decided to just have them come farther down the front of the bodice then they're "supposed to." The straps now attach to the front of the dress with 2 buttons each, One at the top of the bodice and one at the bottom of the strap. I love the look this gives the dress!

So, my quest to make my sister a pair of overalls didn't exactly result in a pair of overalls, but instead a fun, plaid jumper! Not exactly perfect to do farm chores in, but it works just fine to play in. Now, maybe next week I'll get around to actually making her a pair of overalls. . .