This may come as surprise to you… but i love overalls. They are cute, they make a whole outfit, they’re comfortable. What’s not to like?
In my quest to finding the perfect overalls my pattern hacking gears started turning which led to the amazing conclusion that you can make overalls out of any pants pattern you already have!
Since I’ve already found my perfect trousers pattern (you can find all about my TNT patterns here) it was all a matter of figuring out the upper part of what would soon be overalls! Which I did and since I want to make your sewing life easier, I’ll share.
First things first, here’s what you’ll need:
- A pants/slacks/trousers pattern you love (I’m using the Tatjana trousers by Just Patterns);
- Fabric (I’m using this one by Divazus);
- A zipper;
- Whatever closure you’d like to use for the straps, buttons, those metals thingies that slide. Idk, you do you boo.
- Something to measure with, a ruler or a measuring tape.
- Grab your pants pattern and measure the waist. If your pattern has pleats or darts you’ll have to take those out.

This is the back of my pattern and my measurements are:
- Full width – 22.7 cm
- Darts – 2 + 2.5 = 4.5 cm
- Seam allowance – 1 cm (you need to take the middle seam seam allowance out since you’ll be sewing the two back legs together and then attaching the upper part of the overalls)
22.7 – 4.5 – 1 = 17.2 cm

Now onto the front. This will depend on how your pattern is drafted but usually there’s a pocket. You need to take into account the width of the pocket to find the full width of your front pattern piece.
Something else you need to check is if your pattern piece has a fly extension. If it does, fold it out of the way since we won’t be adding a front fly zipper.

My measurements are:
- Width – 26.5 cm
- width of the pocket piece – 5 cm
- pleats – 2 + 6.5 = 8.5 cm
- seam allowance – 1 cm
- Fly extension – 4 cm
26.5 + 5 = 31.5 cm
31.5 – 8.5 – 1 – 4 = 18 cm
2. Alright, we’ve figured out how wide our pattern pieces will be at the waist. Now it’s time to draft them. I’ll show you what shape and measurements I chose for mine but this will depend on the design you’re trying to achieve and on your own measurements.

- (A) how tall you’d like the side seams to be.
- (B) the side seam seam allowance. I like to work with a 1 cm seam allowance.
- (C) This is were your straps are being attached so this measurement will depend on how wide you’d like your straps to be. Mine will be 4 cm wide.
- (D) How tall the upper part of the overalls will be. I’d recommend taking a measuring tape against your torso. If you have bigger boobs these part will have to be longer since the fabric will have to accommodate for the curvature of your chest.
- (E) how wide your front is at the top. Same thing, hold a measuring tape against your chest and see how wide you’d like it to be.
- (F) These will be the measurements we figured out earlier.
For the straps you just need to figure out how wide and how long you want them.
Mine have these measurements:

3. Woop woop! It’s time to cut our fabric! As you won’t be doing a front fly zipper you don’t need to cut those pattern pieces. The same for the waistband.

Interface your pattern pieces like shown.



4. You’ll sew the legs following your pattern instructions.
The things you’ll leave out are the following:
- Front fly zipper;
- In seam;
- side seams;
- waistband.
5. At this point you should have two front and two back legs. Time to work on the upper part of the overalls. Grab your straps and fold them right sides facing. Sew them lengthwise.

6. Turn the straps inside out and press.

7. Grab one of the back pieces and lay it right side up. Align the straps at the top. Then pin the remaining back piece right side down. Sew leaving the sides and bottom open.


8. Turn everything inside out and press.

9. Put both front pieces right sides facing and sew leaving the sides and bottom open.

10. Turn them inside out and press.

11. Pin the front legs and front upper part right sides facing and sew.

12. Press the seams downwards and topstitch.

13. Put the back legs and back upper part right sides facing and sew. Then press and topstitch like you did for the front.

14. Put front and back right sides facing and sew the in seams.
15. Time to install the zipper! To do it, choose which side you’d like the zipper to be. I put mine on the right. You’ll baste the top of the side seam the same length as your zipper and sew the rest on both sides.

16. Sew the zipper.

17. At this point the only things left to do is figure out the front closure and hem. I chose to do buttons. Oh also, you’ll need to finish the straps but that’ll depend on the closure you choose. For mine, i just folded the ends of the straps inwards and topstitched.

🌼 TA DA! YOU’RE DONE 🌼

Hope you find this somewhat easy to follow and if you do end up making overalls out of a pants pattern let me know! Just use the #madewithcoolstitches or tag me @coolstitches 💗