Making 1940s Inspired Dungarees

Making 1940s Dungarees

During Summer 2018 I decided I wanted to make a change to my style. I pretty much wore skinny jeans and t-shirts all the time, put zero effort into my hair, and just didn’t like how I looked or felt in my clothes. Then I started watching channels like Rachel Maksey and What Abi Makes and finding tons of people on Instagram who wear vintage/vintage inspired clothing on a daily basis. I kept thinking how amazing and confident they looked. I wanted to try vintage for myself and see if it helped me find myself and my style.

The first thing I did was make a trip to the thrift store. I looked for items that weren’t actually vintage, but could pass for ’40s when styled right. I also learned a couple of vintage hairstyles from a youTube video. Then I dove in and started trying out my “new” look. I LOVED it! I get compliments from random people, but most of all, I feel better about myself and how I look!

Thrift store clothing haul

So I’m sure you’re wondering what that has to do with today…well last Winter I resorted to wearing my same old skinny jeans and t-shirts every day because I didn’t have anything else that worked for the cold weather. My plan last Fall was to make a pair of dungarees from Simplicity 8447, but I never found the time to actually get them made.

So fast forward to this year. I don’t want to go through another Winter without wearing the clothes I feel best in. Since I have slowed down from youTube I have had the time to tackle some of my personal projects – one of which is the dungarees from Simplicity 8447. I whipped up the first pair over the course of two days with 8-9 working hours. I LOVE them and wore them five days in a row!

wearing 1940s style everyday

As I wore the dungarees I found a few details I wanted to change to improve on a second pair. So two weeks after making the first pair I made another! It is so rare for me to have the time to take on two clothing items like this in such a short time frame!

I made the desired changes and altered the pattern for a better fit and they turned out exactly how I wanted!

In today’s video I’m sharing a Sew & Tell about the process of making both pairs of dungarees along with a pattern review for Simplicity 8447. You can watch it HERE!

If you give this pattern a try please share a pic to my Facebook page or tag me on Instagram! I hope you enjoy this style of video, I really enjoyed chatting all about my dungarees. Until next time, Happy Sewing!

-Whitney-