Corduroy Yanta Overalls

Sometimes I fall into the trap of thinking that there are types of people who wear certain items of clothing. Like I’ll think, “Oh, I’m not a pencil skirt person.” And I didn’t think that I was an Overalls Person. Maybe I got this impression from looking back at childhood photos of myself with pigtails, a big gap between my front teeth, and sporting pastel (but still somehow neon?) green denim short-overalls. With tie-dye. But I always thought of overalls as something that would make me look juvenile. But that’s silly! I think it’s fine to not LIKE certain types of clothes, but I want to get out of the habit of thinking that certain garment types just aren’t for me, as a blanket statement. The idea of not being able to “pull it off” or the idea that you “can’t” wear something is very limiting. I want to not wear something because I just don’t like it, not because it’s a category I think I shouldn’t wear. (For the record, being a double bassist and also someone who teaches cello flies in the face of this philosophy in that I don’t think I can be a Person Who Plays Cello Every Day while simultaneously being a Pencil Skirt Person. At least not without exhibiting wildly improper playing technique and/or putting my underwear on display.) All this is to say that I was proven wrong by the Helen’s Closet Yanta Overalls in the best way possible and I think that I just hadn’t found the right overalls to unlock the Overalls Person that lived inside me all along.

The thing about not having known until a couple days ago that I actually like overalls is that I’m not super confident in how to style them. In a rare occurrence, I finished the Yanta overalls and wore them to work the next day without photographing them first. So the photos you see above are how I styled them to wear outside of my house, as well as what they look like after a full day of being on the go. They were very versatile and comfortable! I think the reason I wore them straight away is because I didn’t want to give myself the chance to retreat into my “I’m not an overalls person” hidey-hole and have these end up in the closet forever, me constantly chickening out of wearing them because I didn’t know what to wear with them or if I could “pull them off”. I’m glad I just wore them, because they are great!

My measurements are 37.5″/30.5″/39.5″ and I made a straight size 10 with a couple modifications. I’m 5’4″ and Yanta overalls are drafted for someone who’s 5’6″, so I shortened them a bit. Helen recommends that whatever the different between your height and the drafted height, you shorten/lengthen the pattern in total by half of that amount. My difference is 2″, but I a) flubbed the math and only just now realized that I had mentally decided the difference between 5’4″ and 5’6″ was 4″ but it is in fact 2″ so now this shows that I went even more flagrantly against what Helen recommended (I’m the worst) because b) I shortened 3″ total, 1″ at each of the lengthen/shorten lines. There’s one in the bib, one in the rise, and one in the leg. I also shortened the bib pocket by 1″ because I didn’t want it to dwarf the bib after I’d shortened it, and I figured it wasn’t like I was going to stuff massive objects in the pocket directly over my boobs in the first place. I like how the proportion of it ended up. I also am really happy with the fit. I questioned my decisions when I was shortening, but I had gotten the fabric on a “buy 1m, get 2m free” sale for $17 total, so it was not a big financial risk. And I don’t have a wedgie! Success! If you make a straight size, you also shouldn’t need a side zipper (although there are instructions to insert one if you’ve graded in) and my experience lines up with this because I can easily slip them on over my hips.

The other modification I made was to lengthen the straps in order to accommodate overalls buckles. I initially lengthened the straps by 10″ but ended up trimming 6″ off again after I installed the buckles so I only needed 4″ total. I was initially going to use sliders to make the straps adjustable, so I ordered an overalls hardware kit from Closet Core Patterns that includes the buckles, sliders, and jeans buttons. The kits are meant for their pattern, the Jenny overalls, but the straps are the same width on both patterns so the hardware was perfect for these. Once I was getting every thing assembled in terms of the straps, I was following this tutorial, but then I just found that I didn’t think I’d need the sliders. The buckles themselves are not slide-y once you have them on, so they can be used to adjust the strap length quite easily (at least with the corduroy) and the sliders felt like overkill. So I switched to using this tutorial instead, sans sliders. I think in future I would be willing to use the buttons and buttonholes that are in the original Yanta pattern. I was resistant to them for my first pair because I was thinking I needed the straps to be adjustable, but I ended up tacking down the loose end of my straps anyway (not too many stitches in case I do want to adjust in future) so buttons would be fine. Plus a good contrast to make a second pair not look completely identical to this pair.

The Yantas were honestly a quick sew compared to what I was expecting. My disclaimer is that I say this as someone who has been sewing intensively for more than five years and has made things like jeans multiple times. But the fact that the leg and bib are all one piece really speeds things up, and I find facings are just quicker to sew and less finicky than things that have bias tape finishing. I serged all the seam finishes, so that helped speed things up as well. I think I can vary between being a Process Sewist (being into the journey) and a Product Sewist (wanting the end garment) but in this case I was definitely in the zone to get these finished and on my body. I cut them out on Sunday evening, and then ended up having a snow day on the Monday so sewed them completely that day. And that even includes the fact that I sewed the bodice for a Sirocco jumpsuit for my sister in the morning before I even started sewing these. (I wasn’t going to sew them until the jumpsuit was done but I got very irritated by the velvet of the jumpsuit and just had to put it down.)

I want to tell you the things I really like about the Yanta pattern. First, I love the overall silhouette. I like how it curves out at the hips but then back in at the ankle. I like the length of the pants (although I might lengthen them in future to allow for cuffing.) I like all the pockets! I assembled them all at the same time and it was very satisfying. Plus sometimes you just need a good patch pocket instead of all the extra steps with in-seam pockets (since I’m a person who always understitches). But the thing I think I love most is the way the edge curves down from the bib and around your waist/hips. I think it’s just so flattering around the bust and is a great proportion, at least on me. They hit at a good height on me as well. I wanted to show you in the photos below the curve I’m talking about, plus give you a sense of how they hang away from my body a bit on the sides, just so you can pick your size accordingly if you’re making them, depending on the kind of fit you like. This pattern goes up to a 58″ hip with Helen’s improved size range.

Finally, here are some seated photos, which honestly represent the greater proportion of time I spent in these at work since I was sitting to play cello most of the day! I should mention that the Yanta overalls are currently on sale for 20% off since they are Helen’s featured pattern for the month of February (2021, if you’re reading much later). I already bought the fabric for these in January and then dawdled about buying the pattern so long that they ended up being on sale which was a happy accident! I’m trying not to buy patterns until I’m just about to use them so then I can avoid building up so many patterns that I end up changing my mind about and languish in the digital equivalent of a fabric stash. So that worked out in my favour this time! I have had such high sewjo lately, I just want to sew all the things. I need to finish the aforementioned velvet jumpsuit for my sister (a copy of my own in a different colour) as well as finishing a Peppermint jumpsuit for my friend (it was an in-kind skill trade), and then I’m dreaming of FINALLY finishing my elephant quilt. A girl can dream.