I’ve wanted to make something the Dutch call a ‘tuinbroek’ for a long time now. A tuinbroek, from the Dutch word for garden, is called dungarees in English. Pants with flaps at the front and back and straps over the shoulder.
For my plan to work I first needed to find a pants pattern that would fit, such that I could add the front, back and straps. I eventually settled on the pattern I used for my green and grey pants. I tried to remove the pleats in the front because I didn’t like them for my dungarees and shortened it to knee level. Found my fabric, a bright red linen type stuffy that I’ve also made this bag from, and cut it out. That was 2 to 3 months ago. Guess what has been wadded up inside a bag for quite a while…
Now, it is presently extremely hot in the Netherlands, so hot that I needed something short to be able to survive the heat. So I continued on with my dungarees. Also because I felt a bit guilty that it had been left in the plastic bag for so long already. I first made the pants bit, where I found out that I hadn’t removed enough of the pleats so I still had to make some anyway, otherwise it would just fall straight off my bum.
You can see the pleat next to the zipper, it’s on an angle because I liked the look of that better. I also made belt loops in case I want to wear a sash or belt. This is the only side that opens, the other is completely closed. It opens by means of a zipper and two sets of hooks & eyes.
When I had finished it all, including the top pocket, back pockets, belt loops and serged all the insides, I had to decide on the length. It was really hot so I decided to chop it all off. It’s pants, so basically still having a bit of inseam would be decent enough. I was wondering if I wanted to have turn ups, so I made those first, the plan being to allow me to turn those turn ups in or out depending on my mood. I didn’t like them out so I decided to stitch them down. This made the inseam the perfect length of 11 cm.
All in all, I like them. I might possibly need a little bit more room in the butt area, but I’ll see if I can change that in the next iteration of this pattern. I really like this pattern so I’m guessing there might be more in the future. This is how they look on me, completely finished.
I have already started a new project involving some stuff that feels like a wet-suit. I just hope that project will not take as long as this did.
One thought on “Moving Fabric”