Patching one and the same trouser knee for the third time. Something in me began to rebel. I understand that there is work where you do not have to look pretty. But still.
And then... then I remembered that a friend recently brought a pack of workwear production offcuts. A piece of neon yellow, orange, blue, green, white, black... The decision came before I had even got the fabrics out: I will sew new work dungarees from coloured patches.
About constructing patterns I know absolutely nothing. All my life I have toiled with the help of Burda patterns. I sewed a great deal in Soviet times, above all for the children. New clothes for every season, from dresses and tracksuits to jackets and winter overalls.
So I know very well how "simple" it is to find that one and only pattern you need, in the right size at that. Basic patterns are usually not in magazines. Always some multi-culti contraption... So a fairly hopeless undertaking.
I laid the worn out dungarees flat on the floor, the pieces of fabric underneath them, and drew lines straight onto the fabric with a yellow pencil. A few check measurements with the tape measure and the thing started to take shape. There was nothing to lose. The most expensive material was about 2 m of binding tape, the only thing I had paid money for. And the zip, of course.
I decided to make simplified dungarees. All those dozens and dozens of pockets, cords, straps, danglers, hook and loop tapes, clips and heaven knows what else that are hung all over them. I could not be bothered. I would be fiddling and combining all that nonsense for a week or more. My aim was to have the trousers finished by evening.
Besides, I have seen enough wearers of dungarees to know how little all those pockets and gadgets are really used: in the side pockets there are screws. In the hanging pockets, you guessed it, screws as well. In the back pocket... screws too. All identical, all one size. In some pocket there may be a stray drill bit. Imagine, there are even pockets on the knees. Well, what else should go in there? Bolts, before you kneel down?
I did, though, sew pockets on the back and the sides, wide reflectors on the trouser legs and the back. The shoulder braces got tremendously grand wide hook and loop tapes for adjusting the length. A zip with two pulls, so it can be opened from either end. Double fabric on the knees and the front of the legs for reinforcement. All the seams sewn over with double topstitching. Very strong and splendid, I think.
In the evening, when the dungarees were almost finished and I presented them with a ta-daa as a surprise, I was of course informed that without hanging pockets dungarees are not proper dungarees at all. And there has to be a phone pocket on the chest, and the knee pockets are in fact for knee pads. Oh, I see... I added the hanging pockets, pretty ones in neon colours, so that screws are not stuffed past them. A phone pocket on the chest I did not make and will not make. What fool keeps a phone in a chest pocket? I made one more pocket on the hip.
But knee pockets? I wonder whether I am the only one who thinks that if the knee pads are ON TOP of the dungarees, not inside (in a pocket), then you only need new knee pads from time to time rather than constantly patching trouser knees or buying new trousers. Or is that a clever marketing trick of its own to boost trouser sales?
In any case the trousers were finished and improved, and I sewed new patches onto the old ones too. On the grey dungarees the right buttock in dark blue and the left in black fabric. Honestly, I did not have the same grey fabric waiting on the shelf 😛 You cannot be that vain: if patched trousers will do, then what difference does it make what colour the patches are. 😛
