hand-me-downs

Ellie gets a lot of great hand-me-downs from neighbors and friends. As she (and the children they're coming from) get older, some of the items have seen better days. This pair of overalls had a few holes and some wear on the knees, but fit her great.

The holes were covered with the flowers on the right leg above. Worn knees got some polka dot reinforcement.

Because I can't leave well enough alone, I threw some patches on the back as well.

Wonder under was used to iron the fabric onto the denim before stitching. Any other fusible web will do. Because these are so small, I opened up the seam on the inner leg from about an inch above the hem on one leg all the way around to the other hem. If they had been very baggy on her, I'd have just cut that seam allowance off, but since the fit was more on target, I had to use my seam ripper. With that opened up, it was easy to do the zig zag around the patches. I set my zig zag at its widest and much longer than normal. You may have to use the handwheel to stitch through areas that are very thick and uneven under the presser foot, like the pocket edges. When I didn't, I had a few skipped stitches, but this only happened a couple of times when the foot didn't seem balanced. I didn't want to use that plastic dohickey that you slip under one side of the foot. Once the leg appliques are done, you can sew the inner seam again and serge the edges. If you don't have a serger, just zig zag them.

I had trouble figuring out the bib pocket at first. I wanted it covered in fabric, but didn't want to sew it shut at the top. Cutting the fabric at the top about an inch longer than the pocket so it could be folded over the top and fused into place seems to have worked. We'll see how it holds up in the wash. If I have to hand tack it into place later, the stitches will be hidden on the inside.

One more back to school outfit finished.