Coveralls

After having my husband ask one too many times "Can you peel these off my shoulder?" and having to pull his gross blue coverall off his shoulder so he can get them off, I decided it was time to make him a pair. I thought I had seen a commercial pattern out there, so I took a look and found Kwik Sew 3389. FabricLand doesn't carry Kwik Sew anymore, but I knew my tiny local fabric store did. However, it was a weekend, and they're closed Sun/Mon and the Kwik Sew website was having a sale and even with exchange, I still got it (and a swim suit pattern LOL) cheaper than if I bought it local. Sad. It did come pretty quick.

There's not a lot out there in the internet world about these coveralls. A bit on Pattern Review, and the only other blog I found was Male Pattern Boldness . He's not exactly built like my husband, nor was he making "crawl under the truck" coveralls. There's more links at the bottom of his post to his finished ones. Those posts helped a bit, but some of the instructions still had me a little befuddled. I've never added a collar like this (Helpful hubby: "Isn't it just two triangles?"), or done a zipper like this (though I did make shorts with a zipper fly last year!). In the end, these weren't hard, but just a lot of steps and pieces! Soooo many pieces. I opted to do all the top stitching on the Consew so I wouldn't have to worry about having enough matching thread (we only have black for the Consew LOL) or re-threading the main machine for each time I need to top stitch. And I wanted to learn the Consew. I knew I could assemble the parts on my Kenmore but sometimes topstitching goes through thicker seam joins. There's no seam guide on the Consew either, so I'm hesitant to use it for seaming.

I measured hubby's torso, and it said he was in the XL size. However, the pattern is drafted for men 5'10 and he's 6'2" so somewhere I needed to add 4". I added some in the legs and some in the torso. Turns out he didn't need either. I guess his extra 4" is all neck and head?!

So many pieces to trace out! Not all had to be traced, but a good number of them. 

This was all the fabric I had. I believe I ended up seaming the back yoke, vertically up the centre, so I would be able to make it all with this fabric. A contrasting yoke would be okay too. The fabric is a brown twill. It's very drapey/stretchy for a twill and I wonder if it has any lycra in it. I think it's twill--the pattern is more raised than say, Old Navy twill. Almost a corduroy feel, but if I remember, it's a diagonal.

Using what ever I've got for pattern weights. I get pattern weight envy when I see sewists with cute, all matchy weights. But I don't like spending money either.

And that's the pile of scraps. I believe I got even the pocket lining done in that fabric. 

First top stitching on the Consew! The outer line should have been closer to the edge. I realized after I started that the foot is not symmetrical--one leg of the foot is narrow and the other leg is wide. So, if using the edge of the foot as a guide, you have to make sure you're doing it the same way each time. Which can result in a lot of fabric being pushed around, as well as snipping each line of top stitching rather than coming back the other direction. I was a little disappointed that there was some waviness going on. I pressed and steamed and it looked better, but I thought the walking foot was supposed to prevent this. Perhaps it's because the fabric had stretch, or perhaps it was actually too light for the Consew.

I was concerned about the collar because you top stitch on the inside to hold the seam allowance down. It shows under the collar on the outside, but really, the collar is laying down over this. As long as the front edges looked good, that was important.

(I've just started painting my nails again. Of course, all nine other nails look awesome)

I think this is the waist band. There's still some waviness in the topstitching, and some of it looks like a drunken monkey sewed it. 

There's the front all done, except the zipper. I had some serious issues with the bottom of the zipper. I don't know if it was my poor marking skills, the fabric stretching, or what, but I just ended up doing the best I could.

See, there's a little ripple on the left side coming from within the zipper area?

I just couldn't get everything to lay exactly flat. I wasn't 100% sure I was doing it right, since  the zipper tape is exposed.  I didn't have any black zippers the right length. But I had this one, and I was really wanting to finish without having to buy anything. However, I actually pulled the zipper off the top after trimming the end! Took awhile to get it back on--I found a few tutorials but one said to take the coil off but leave the cording...which was getting all frayed with my attempts to get the zipper back on. Eventually I trimmed that too and now the zipper is a bit shorter than it should have been, but it works. The top part isn't pretty though. I used a thin yarn to make a zipper stop. I figure, he'll have gloved hands, he's not gentle, better make it obvious!  The other cool part about this zipper is that it opens at both ends! 

 Here he is, in his natural habitat

Lots of give for bending and stretching, and I don't have to peel them off him

And yeah. The back torso  length is too long! But pull the waistband up and he's got a wedgie. Guess I have to do a full butt adjustment, just like on his boxers. 

Two things I would change: A hanging loop on the back neck, and elasticize the top of the back pocket. I could do a snap but I think elastic would be better. 

See how the pocket gapes open? Ignore the threads I somehow forgot to clip.

I wasn't sure if this was how it was supposed to be. Why wasn't the edge finished?

 I would definitely want to do something to the edge next time.

So, I think I'm going to see if I can shorten the back a bit. It's seamed and then top stitched. Ugh. Could I just take a horizontal dart and stitch it closed? They're just coveralls! And I have to shorten the legs and sleeves!