a red wine pinafore

I’m wearing a new … thing. Is it a dress? Dungarees? An overall…? we used to call these pinafores. Or a pinny. I think it’s pretty cute anyway

I used to dress my children in corduroy dungarees when they were little, and LOVED seeing them toddle around in them, how sweet they used to look! So maybe I’m a little nostalgic. And maybe it could be argued that pinnies are a funny choice for a woman of my age, that they’re more suited to a younger set; but whatever… I’m just just inexplicably into them right now; I don’t always follow a trend but this one I really liked and I just wanted one. Nowadays I’m just into wearing what I want to, and am caring less and less if it’s what I’m supposed to be wearing. It’s kinda freeing, to be honest.

I’m trying to remember when the pinafore first crept sneakily into my head and buried itself comfortably there … was it in Japan? or Melbourne? just the general collective subconscious? most likely the last one… can’t remember, but the idea got wedged in somewhere and at some point I started to fantasise about my perfect pinnie. I could picture it exactly; velvet or velveteen, and deep purple-y/burgundy/red wine colour. The only problem was that Spotlight had a wine-coloured corduroy, but not velveteen, and I had my heart set on velveteen… not to worry! I bought the cherry-red velveteen with plans to dye it. I also bought my copper-coloured buckles and jean buttons from Spotlight.

the original colour, before dyeing…

Now patterns, patterns… There re actually precious few pinafore patterns out there. I ended up using the pauline alice turia dungarees pattern, I’d seen and liked Sue’s turia dungarees, especially the cute trapezoid pocket with flap on the bib, and thought I could alter the pattern to be a dress pretty easily, although I ended up altering every single pattern piece! with one exception; that front bib pocket, that attracted me in the first place!

For inspiration; I really liked this pink pinny, and this denim one too… though I preferred the pink one. . I printed out and taped the bodice bits to the shorts bits, and cut them as one piece, like in the following picture… you can see in the picture I’ve allowed plenty of room around the pattern pieces for custom-fitting, and I basically draped and pinned it directly on myself to get the final version! It doesn’t even fit either of my dummies!

The front is cut on the fold as one piece, with a wider bodice and a straightish A-line skirt. The expanse of fabric on the front is nicely cut up by those three patch pockets. The back I cut with a similarly shaped A-line skirt, and to have a centre back seam, which I overlocked and then felled to one side; it would have been easy to cut the back on the fold as one piece too, but because I was not having any pockets on the back, I thought it needed the centre seam for some visual interest.

I cut my hip pockets to be about 2cm deeper and wider than the pattern pieces, because I wanted them to be more visually weighty than they appeared on the pattern illustration… and positioned them on the dress in an optimum position for me, which is lower than on the patten.

I also ended up cutting my shoulder straps narrower than the pattern, so as to fit into the buckles that I’d bought from Spotlight. The pattern is not intended to be lined, however because I knew I’d be wearing it with tights all winter I decided to fully line it… the bodice, shoulder straps, and all the pockets are all lined with white/purple striped linen from Tessutis in Melbourne, leftover from a shirt I made for Craig a few years ago. For the skirt part I unearthed a navy blue polyacetate lining fabric from my stash. I only had a very small piece of this, and by complete sheer luck it was exactly the right size and depth for my lining.

lining; the bodice and skirt are attached together at waist level and cut in the same A-line shape as the pinafore.

pocket lining

I used black thread throughout, and deep chocolate overlocking thread… resulting in a mishmash of cherry red velveteen, white/purple lining, blue skirt lining, and black and chocolate threads .. sounds like a bizarro dog’s breakfast of a dress, yes? Yep!

before dyeing

BUT I knew it’d be alright once it was dyed. And you know what? I’M SO THRILLED WITH IT! I used both iDye in Brown and some Blue, and TOOK THE PLUNGE! eeeeek!!! Dyeing is always a little terrifying, but yeah, I couldn’t be happier with the result, the colour is perfect and EXACTLY what I wanted. I’ve already worn this two days in the week since I finished it!

Details:

Pinafore; some wild ad-libbing upon the pauline alice Turia dungaree pattern
Tshirt; Closet Case patterns Nettie bodysuit, paprika stretch, details here
Scarf; raspberry cotton jersey, detail here
Navy cardigan; the Miette, a free pattern by Andi Satterlund, all yarn details here
Orange arm warmers; made from an old moth-eaten jumper, details here

location; Eagle Bay, in south western Australia