When my mom gave me the overalls, my first thought was to take them apart and use them as a pattern to create new overalls. After all these years of them sitting in a box, I realize that isn't going to happen.
But I am sentimental about these pants and don't want to throw them away. I decided to make them into an apron for my daughter.
This refashion was a bit trickier than I expected because I wanted to make the apron as long as possible (she's a messy girl). To do this, I had to extend the vertical seam between the pockets. It's a seam I didn't recognize, so I looked it up in this trusty reference book that a dear aunt gave me years ago.
It's a flat felled seam, which isn't very complicated for new construction, but extending the existing seam gave me trouble. After a lot of finagling (read: ironing, pinning, consulting the book, unpicking, starting over, pinning a few more times) I finally got the flat-felled seam to work. The rest was easy.
I hemmed the bottom and used the fabric from the back of the legs to make extensions for the straps. Originally, the straps were sewn to the waistband. The new straps reach all the way around to the side of the waist, where they button into the original side buttonholes. I left extra length in the straps so we can move the buttons as she grows.
My daughter loves her elephant apron, and so do I! I think Grandma will be pleased when I tell her that the elephant pants are still in use.
