How To Make Your Own Shortalls

Let’s learn how to make our very own tulle-covered shortalls!

Today we’re making a self-drafted project that’s lightweight and can immediately transform your closet based off of the many fun color combinations you can get with your different tulle options.

Note: I’ve also included pictures in this post of another pair I made out of fabric scraps for my niece. It uses exactly the same method, minus the tulle. So you have lots of options!

Recently I teamed up with my incredible friend Jo, of Benji and Frankie’s Shop to bring you some new creative challenges! We spent months designing and creating little presents for each other so that we could fill a mystery box with goodies. One of my makes for her was these tulle-covered shortalls.

You can find her on Instagram @BenjiAndFrankiesShop or check out her shop here and explore some of her other incredible makes!

Now let’s get into sewing these short overalls!

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Approximate time to completion: 7-9 hours spread out across 5-6 days

Disclaimer: I am trying to teach myself the Metric System, I will always try to include both measurements in my tutorials, i.e. centimeters and inches, meters, and yards. Though I have been using them interchangeably in my everyday sewing life lately, I apologize if I miss including both or switch between the two too often.

Cutting Out Your Pattern

Usually, when I make a project I create my pattern on a piece of paper or cardboard first before cutting out the fabric. This time is different. I don’t know if I was being lazy this time or perhaps I’m a genius for tracing everything out directly onto the fabric and cutting it out. I prefer to think positive thoughts about myself, so I’ll go ahead and unanimously agree with myself that I’m secretly brilliant.

To get started, grab your reference shortalls/overalls, one of your two fabrics, preferably the sturdier one, your scissors, fabric chalk, tape measure, and possibly some sewing pins.

Place your reference item directly onto the fabric and trace out your pieces. For every piece that your reference garment has, you will need to cut one of those out for your shortalls. To clarify, that’s two of the garment above, not one.

Be sure to cut everything out with 1″ (3cm) of seam allowance, and additional seam allowance along the bottom hem.

Remember to cut out straps (on the fold), a waistband, bib, and all the shorts pieces. Don’t cut out pockets unless you want them lined. I only wanted tulle pockets.

Once you have all of your main fabric pieces cut out, take your fabric pieces and lay them on top of your tulle and cut out the exact same pieces. You should essentially have two pairs of shortalls when you’re done cutting.

Pockets

Remember to cut out your pockets, I made mine entirely out of tulle. It was super easy to lay the tulle on top of my shorts and cut around them. Make sure you cut out enough pieces for each pocket. With tulle, you can create deeper colors by using more than one layer of tulle, or create a new color by putting two different color tulles together.

For my front pockets, I wanted a pocket that lays on top of the shortalls instead of the ones that go inside the shorts. To gauge the size for this I laid my tulle on top of the inside of the front pocket on my reference garment and cut two rectangles per each pocket. One piece for the base of the pocket on the front of my shortalls and one piece to create the top layer or the pocket with the opening.

Whichever piece is going to be the top piece of your pocket, you will need to cut an angle along the outer edge. You’ll see this a little more in a later picture.

I also included the little detailed pocket at the back that’s honestly…probably entirely for decoration. I cut out one for each side of my shortalls, even though my reference garment only had it on one side.

Lastly, you will also need to create your own bias tape out of the tulle. Cut several long strips about 1.50″ (4cm) wide, by as long as you can. I think I cut maybe six or eight strips in total. I went back and cut more at one point because I didn’t have enough, so cut quite a few to start. This will be going around every edge of your shortalls to create a perfect, clean finish, you’ll need quite a bit.

Iron these as you would bias tape (you can use something like this bias tape maker to help with this step) and set them aside for later.

Note: You can make the tulle bias tape wider if you prefer. I found putting the tulle bias tape on the shortalls to be very tedious and frustrating. My tulle was very thin and wouldn’t hold the ironed shape well, which made it even more difficult to pin onto every edge of the shortalls.

Prepping Your Pieces For Assembly

Before we can begin to assemble the shortalls, we’ll first need to make the tulle pieces and the base fabric pieces into one piece.

With the good side of your fabric and your tulle facing up, pin each piece together and overlock or zig-zag stitch. I did this all in one big batch to speed everything up. Pinning every piece before zig-zag stitching.

Fold your tulle good sides facing and place it taco style into your main fabric, also good sides facing and pin it together. Sew along to the open edge and down one side, or leave it open and zig-zag stitch it later. It will be hidden inside the straps later and you won’t notice.

I opted not to sew one end down because I wanted to be able to narrow one end of the strap to create more of a triangle-shaped strap rather than a rectangle. You will need to make sure at least one of your straps fits into your overall fasteners.

Once you’re sure the width of one end is correct (unless you want the strap width to be the same along the whole strap) turn the straps right side out. Iron them so the tulle lays flat and looks nice. Then pin the straps in place to hide the seam on what will be the inside when you attach the straps to the overall. Alternatively, you can iron it to one side. Top stitch the straps on both sides, creating one line along each side of the strap.

To prepare your pockets, because the tulle has an attitude and slips and slides all over the place, I recommend pinning them down and sewing them in place now. The only place that needs a rolled hem and clean finish is the top along the back pockets and the angled open edge of your front pockets and the itty bitties in the back. All the other edges can just be rolled once as we’ll be hiding the raw edge when we sew the pockets in place.

Use a matching thread and your smallest straight stitch, it’ll keep the tulle in place and no one should be able to notice we cheated with our pocket prep.

When you’re sewing the folds on your front pockets, make sure your pockets (and the itty bitty back pieces) have opposite angles. I accidentally sewed the same direction on one of my pockets and had to make a new one. Notice how the itty bitty decorative pockets both have an angle going in different directions. Your pocket pieces should too.

At this step, I also sewed my front pockets to the back piece. You can see above that the angle was sewn first with a rolled hem, then pinned to the back rectangle piece of the pocket and they were all sewn together, leaving only the pocket opening.

Sewing The Front Of The Shortalls

Start by pinning and sewing your pockets to the corner of each front short panel. Sew around the edges of each rectangle, creating two lines for a completed look. Make sure you pin them .50″ (1cm) down from the top edge, and .50″ (1cm) in from the side edge. The pocket opening should face the hip side, not the crotch side of the short panel.

Fold your bib in half to find the center front and mark it with a pin. Measure the height of your bib to decide what height you want to pin your pocket at. Then pin your pocket in place and sew two lines around the sides and bottom to secure it in place.

Pin and sew your bib to your waistband.

Pin the two front short pieces together along the crotch, good sides facing and sew. Sew only the crotch together, not the leg openings that come straight down from the curve.

Open your shorts up and lay them flat. Pin the waistband to the shorts, good sides facing, and sew, attaching the bib to the shorts.

Note: If you have to take any bulk out of your shortalls because they’re too big, it will have to come out of your front crotch seam. The back crotch seam will not have any fabric to spare because we’re adding the pockets close to the booty seam.

Alternatively you can pin everything together and try your shorts on now to see if they’re too big. Then you can trim down the back seam before you attach the back pockets.

Sewing The Back Of The Shortalls

Before we attach the back pockets you need to first mark the shorts with fabric chalk or pins to determine where we will be attaching everything.

From the hip side make a mark all the way up at 1″ (3cm) in. This is where we will attach the front shorts to the back shorts, along this edge. The reason why is so that we have a little overlap of the shorts when we put them on. It’ll ensure your underwear isn’t hanging out in the open.

From this point make a mark up from the bottom hem at 5.50″ (14cm). This is where we’ll stop sewing the front shorts when we attach them. We want to leave a section open and unsewn because we’ll be adding buttons.

Next, we’ll line up the itty bitty pocket along the bottom hemline. It should be placed along that 1″ (3cm) mark we made. I believe I moved it after I took this photo. Pin this in place along three edges, leaving the angled edge open. The angled edge faces the hip.

At the top edge of the itty bitty pocket, pin the corner of your main pocket. Make sure everything looks level and like the spacing is how you want it. You can always move these two pockets around if it isn’t exactly how you want it.

Pin the pockets in place on both sides of the back shorts, leaving the top edges of the pockets open. Sew two lines around the edges of each pocket.

Pin the two back shorts pieces together along the crotch, leaving the leg section open. Sew the shortalls together.

Putting Everything Together And Finishing Touches

To assemble the shortalls, pin the crotch seams of the front and back shorts, good sides facing, and sew.

Pin the front and back of the shorts together at the side seams and sew. Remember that the front of the shorts will attach at that 1″ (3cm) mark we created on the side seam on the back of the shorts piece. Don’t sew higher than the 5.50″ (14cm) mark we made on the side of the shorts. Otherwise, you won’t be able to get into the shorts.

Now you should have a complete set of shortalls. At this point, we need to add the details that bring the whole thing together.

Pin the bias tape you created earlier around all edges, including the leg holes, and sew it in place.

Pin the straps to the top, good side of the strap facing outward. The straps should hang down into the shortalls. Sew the top edge of the straps, then fold the straps up and sew them again. Double-check that the good side is facing out, and the ugly side facing in.

You can install the overall fasteners in a couple of different ways. I recommend you check out this short video to learn how to install overall buckles.

Sew button holes on each side of your shorts. You will need two on each side, one in the center of the waistband. The placing of the second buttonhole is up to you. I matched the placement of my reference shortalls.

Lastly, attach your stud buttons by marking the center spot through each buttonhole. Push the stud through the mark on your fabric and hammer the button onto the overall.

Finished Results

And that’s it! Your shortalls are officially finished! Try them on and let me know how they turned out!

I also made a kid’s version of these shortalls for my niece!

Note: To help with fitting, we added some elastic in the waistband which can easily be taken out later as she grows. So – hopefully – they should fit her for a couple of summers.

Did you like this tutorial? Let me know in the comments! And tell me what other DIY projects you are interested in seeing next!

If you give this project a go, tag me on Instagram @doorsandfloorsblog and use the hashtags #SewingCat and #DoorsAndFloorsBlog so I can see what you make!

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P.S. Looking for a fun activity you can do with a friend while working on tedious crafty tasks, download our free trivia here.

Playing trivia is a great way to keep your mind active and have fun with your crafty friends and family while busting out those seam ripping, crocheting, and other time-consuming, but necessary, crafty tasks.