- Choosing your size
- Lengthening or shortening pattern pieces
- How to combine pattern sizes
- How to make common trouser fitting adjustments

Choosing your size


In need of some inspiration for sewing your Erin dungarees or overalls? You've come to the right place! Welcome to the first part of our Erin dungarees sewalong, supported by Janome. This blog post is jam-packed with fabric possibilities and inspo for your Erin makes.
In this part of the Erin sewalong we'll cover:
It works well with a wide range of fabrics, from medium-weight soft woven fabrics such as needlecord, linen and soft cotton twill, through lighter-weight drapey wovens such as viscose (rayon) or Tencel (lyocell), to low stretch knit fabrics such as French terry and ponte roma. The range of fabrics makes it great for year-round wear!
Your choice of fabric will affect how the dungas look and feel when you wear them - see how the linen shorts sample we made holds its shape, while the leopard viscose blend gives a softer silhouette, the pink terry gives a snuggly vibe, and the mustard cord is cosy and strokeable! I would avoid anything that feels too stiff, as it could make the dungas a bit uncomfy to wear.
Want a helping hand with your next make? We're teaming up with our friends at Janome to bring you a FREE Erin dungarees sewalong! You read that right, a FULL step-by-step sewalong (with videos) breaking down every step of making your own Erin dungas or overalls sewing pattern, including:
The oh-so-cute and comfy Erin dungarees sewing pattern is our first pattern to be printed in all 15 sizes, from UK 6-34 (US 2-30 / EUR 34-62 / AUS 6-34).
Tilly was inspired to design the Erin dungarees after she wanted something practical, cosy and comfortable to wear that also looked and felt great. And we think she got it just right! The Erin dungarees are absurdly comfy. Seriously, once you make a pair, you won’t want to wear anything else! The whole TATB office is obsessed with Erin. We’ve made six pairs between us so far, and this number is rapidly increasing...
They're also simple to sew, and extremely versatile, with multiple versions and wide a variety of fabrics to choose from, including knits as well as wovens (yessss!).
Exciting news about our next sewing pattern release, which is coming next week – the printed pattern, as well as the PDF version, will come in 15 sizes from UK 6 to 34!
Until now, Tilly and the Buttons patterns that come in sizes UK 26 – 34 (US 22 – 30 / EUR 54 – 62 / AUS 26 – 34) have been available in PDF format but not in print. For our next release, as well as for future printed patterns and reprints of our existing designs, we are delighted to be offering these sizes in print too. The body measurements go up to 152.5cm (60in) bust, 134.5cm (53in) waist and 155cm (61in) hip.
To make this happen, we have combined our two size bands (UK 6 – 24 and UK 16 – 34) into one (UK 6 – 34). The benefits of this approach are:
Hooray!
To create a better fitting pattern than if we were to simply size up and down from one shape or “block”, we are still putting the extra work in to draft, fit and grade the lower and upper sizes in the range separately to account for different proportions.
We've tackled buttonholes in detail before on the blog, if you've read through our Tilly Tips For Perfect Buttons post we're sure you'll be feeling confident facing any sewing project featuring any pesky buttons. But this time we want to show you how to sew buttonholes on knit fabrics, such as jersey, ponte or sweatshirting.
Sewing buttonholes on stretch fabrics might sound rather intimidating, but here at Tilly and the Buttons we're lovers of sewing with stretch (Tilly wrote a book all about it don't ya know?) and we want to show you sewing buttonholes on your comfiest clothes can be straightforward too, with the help of these tips...
1) Interface the area
When sewing buttonholes on knit fabrics it's important to stabilise the area with interfacing so your buttonhole doesn't stretch out over time and unfasten when you least expect it! Even though you're sewing a stretch garment, this is one small area that you don't want to stretch.
Hello! It's Rhi - the Marketing Manager at Tilly and the Buttons, here to talk about my experience of learning to sew knits. It’s fair to say that I have the least sewing experience of Team Buttons - I’m still on my sewing journey, having only started sewing in November 2020.
My machine isn’t high end - a Singer Confidence 7463. I was so fearful of sewing with stretchy fabrics - having listened to the rumour that knit fabrics are difficult to handle, or that you need an overlocker. But *spoiler alert* this is a myth!
I hope my experience will help any other stretch sewing newbies out there and motivate you to tackle that project you've been avoiding... Here are the stretch sewing projects I started my knit sewing journey with: