Helen’s Closet Yanta Overalls

Hi friends, I am FINALLY sharing my Yanta Overalls from Helens Closet, as I have been promising for a long time on Instagram. I love how these turned out, but it wasn’t without a few alterations. However, they ended up super cute and comfy, so no complaints here! This post has been a long time coming and its not quite as detailed as I would have liked. I wanted to share line drawings of the alterations like I did on my Flint Pants, but I just couldn’t get the PDF to cooperate in my open source version of Adobe Illustrator, so here we are with a bunch of pictures and a description of my alterations. I am thisclose to paying for Illustrator, but it will have to wait ’til another day. Hope this all makes sense!

I cut these in a size 22 bust, 24 waist, 26 hips, as measured. Before cutting the fabric, I also graded out to the size 30 at the crotch points on both the front and the back, grading back down to the 26 at the knee. I’ve tried this on my last couple of pants/overalls and its been working pretty well as a sort of “cheater” full booty/full inner thigh adjustment. The unfortunate thing about making overalls is that its hard to tell how they are going to fit until you get them nearly put together. At that point it’s fairly hard to alter fit without ripping out a bunch of seams. Its kind of like sewing bras!

Though I had tried them on a couple of times thought construction, once I put the straps on, it was apparent that something was super off, they looked baggy and droopy. I’m not going to lie, I was quite frustrated since I had been planning this project for months before I finally found time to work on it, so my expectations were high. Not to mention, I’ve had really good luck with other Helen’s Closet patterns in the past, so I wasn’t expecting any fit issues (though I haven’t tried any of her pants until now). They went in the naughty corner for a week or so.

After I recovered my will to fight the fit battle, I tried them on and basted in the waist and side seams. I also googled/instagrammed around a bit and saw that a couple of people had their versions come up a bit large as well. It didn’t seem to be happening to everyone, so I’m wondering if its just down to fabric choice. I used a brussels washer linen that isn’t very structured and stretches out easily. I think the size I measured as would probably work well in something like denim, but in this linen, it just looked sad. Fortunately, taking in the side seams worked like a charm!

I ended up moving the side seam over 1.5″ at the waist, grading to 1″ through the hip and the rest of the lower leg. That means I removed 3 inches at the waist on each side for a total of 6 inches removed from the waist (and 4 from the hips!). Honestly I was shocked by how much I had to remove, but after that fairly painless adjustment, nothing else was needed. I had to make a huge swayback adjustment on my last pair of overalls, so not needing one here was a pleasant surprise. Especially because I haven’t figured out how to do a swayback adjustment on overalls without adding a seam!

As a result of the alterations, both the front and back patch pockets are a little too close to the side seams, but it doesn’t bother me enough to move them inwards. Picking stitches out of this linen was a real nightmare. As you can see at the cuff, I did decide to leave the excess seam allowance in the side seams in case I wanted to adjust them further in the future.

Before the adjustment, I had actually gone to the trouble of drafting a button placket for the side closures at the waist. The pattern includes an optional zip closure, but I thought that would look kind of strange (not that I’ve noticed on anyone else’s version, I think they all look great!). I thought a button placket would look much more classically “overall-y” and it was fairly easily to draft. However, after fighting with the side seams, I ended up just leaving off any closures in the end. The entire side seam is sewed closed up to the waist. Even with my 12″ waist to hip ratio, I can still wiggle these on over my hips without too much trouble.

As I’m sure you can tell by my smug face above, I am super pleased with these overalls and have been wearing them a lot! I have some olive colored non-stretch denim I’m considering making another pair out of for the winter. I know a lot of people have been fine with their sizing as measured, so I would just say proceed with caution if you are using a flimsy or lighter weight fabric like this brussels washer linen. I know I personally will be keeping the next pair I make as adjustable as possible until I get the side seams on, because picking out those facings wasn’t very fun but the result was totally worth it! I can’t wait to see how they wear in with a few more washes.

Just the Facts:

Pattern: Yanta Overalls from Helens Closet

Current Measurements: Bust: 45″, Waist 42″, Hip 53″

Size:  22-24-26, taken in quite a bit through the waist and hips (details above)

Fabric/Notions: Navy Brussels Washer Linen from Hipstitch Albuquerque, buttons from my local quilting and yarn store