How to Easily Make a Dungaree Dress From Old Jeans
In this tutorial, I'll show you how to make a DIY dungaree dress from old jeans! A dungaree dress is timeless and easy to wear in any season. Pair with a t-shirt and sneakers in the warmer months, or boots, tights, and a knit jumper in the cooler months.
Instead of going out buying a dungaree dress, why not make a dungaree dress yourself at home? This is such a cool upcycle. Let me show you how easy a denim dungaree dress is to make!
Tools and materials:
- Old jeans (oversized)
- Chalk
- Scissors
- Skirt as a guide
- Ruler
- Pins
- Sewing machine
- Thread
- Buttons
- Needle
1. Get an old pair of jeans
It’s best to find a pair of jeans that have a stretch. If you don’t own any stretchy jeans, any oversized jeans will do the trick. Here, I've used a pair of my mom's jeans.
2. Cut the jeans
Fold your jeans, and starting from where the back crotch protrudes, cut a straight line across.
Now, you should have two leg pieces. Cut open each piece along the seam.
3. Assemble the pieces
Lay each open piece on top of each other, right sides facing.
Then, fold the whole piece in half. Next, take a skirt, fold it, and lay it on the folded denim pieces. The skirt will give you a pretty good guide on the shape of the dress and will help you determine where the waistline is.
Using chalk, trace a line from the top to the edge of the skirt. Also, trace a cursive from the top of the skirt downward.
Now, cut along these lines and open the fabric pieces. Mark your waistline on either side.
For a cleaner look, fold in the raw edges on the side and sew. This will also prevent your fabric from fraying.
Next, sew from the waistline going down.
4. Make the straps
Cut out the waistband for the straps.
Fold the waistband in half and cut the middle to make two straps.
Now, attach the straps to the top part of the dungaree dress. Make sure the strap at the back is attached from inside the dress.
As you can see, I did a criss-cross style stitch to ensure the strap stays in place.
5. Add buttons
Now, mark the points where you’d like the buttons to go. Make sure it’s centered on each strap and the fabric underneath.
Now, manually sew on your buttons on the main fabric itself, and make some buttonholes on the ends of the front straps.
Tip: If your straps are longer, you can alter the length by sewing in more of the excess fabric, as shown.
6. Make more modifications
If the top of the dungaree dress is a little loose, go ahead and bring in the sides, as shown.
Also, fold and sew the front part should it be too long for you.
DIY dungaree dress
From denim jeans to a cute dungaree dress! Who would have thought that such a transformation could be possible? Let me know what you think of this tutorial on how to make a DIY dungaree dress from old jeans in the comments below.
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Love this!! hope to find some jeans to make this for my grandaughters.
That is absolutely darling!! I’m a 65-year-old grandma I’m going to make one for me and my granddaughter and my daughter’s!!