Spring has definitly sprung here in the Carolinas. And, my wardrobe is reflecting the warmer temps. I whipped up the Helen’s Closet Yanta overalls a few weeks back and can’t wait to share my thoughts.
The overalls are described as laid-back, artist-style overalls with a comfortable fit through the waist, hips, and legs. These overalls have classic features like a v-shaped back and a pointed chest pocket. The Yanta straps are secured using buttons. Make your Yanta Overalls cropped pants or summery shorts. Both views have front and back patch pockets. Yanta is comfortable, modern, and fun to sew!
First off, I love the style of these overalls. I love that they don’t have a waistband. They are beyond comfortable due to their non-constricting nature.
There aren’t a ton of dealbreakers when it comes to fit. Meaning if they don’t fit perfectly it would be hard to tell. But, I did have some things that I wanted to point out.
Your bust is pretty much negligible here as the open sides would hide any fit issues you may have. The only thing I would do if I had a fuller chest would be to measure my bust apex to apex and make sure the front bib covers that measurement.
Waist is also somewhat negligible. However, even though I graded in at the waist, I still had to take some of the bagginess out of the sides. For pear shapes it’s a little tricky because you need to make sure you can still get them on over your hips which is why I didn’t just take it a whole bunch at the side seam. And, you can see that the little darts that I added add up to about 4” of an adjustment which I couldn’t have just lopped off the side seams. It would have created too much of a severe angle from the hip. But, since there’s already one dart that’s a part of the pattern, I decided to just add another one and it solves the waist bagginess issue for me. Could I take out a little more? probably but I don’t want to take away from the intended design either. I feel like this is a good balance.
Regarding the crotch. You can see that I’m getting a wedgie in these. I have since done the controversial “scoop” out of the back crotch which completely solved this problem for me. I am becoming more and more convinced that I’m just a L shape and a lot of US patterns use the J shape so I’ll be a scooper for life. I’ve always loved breaking the rules. LOL.
The crotch depth might be a potential issue. Especially the depth in the back. I think I could use a 1/2” additional room there.
Crotch length and rise don’t seem to be a big problem. Maybe, maybe I could drop the crotch a little little bit, but only after I increase the depth first. I might move the button up a bit which would cause the whole thing to sit lower. Easy fix or at least an easy way to assess if there really is an issue with the rise.
There also appears to be an issue with the front thigh. You can’t really tell when I’m standing, but when I sit down, the hem is very constricting. I don’t know if this is something others have found, but it’s not an adjustment I’m used to assessing. Again, if I increase the back depth, that could also solve this issue. Another quick fix would be to add little slits on the sides seams. It’s a cute detail I see a lot in ready to wear and would be easy to do on these.
It’s really no surprise I have so much to say about the fit of these. They are basically pants after all. But, I do want to say that assessing fit on something like these that don’t have a waistband and are also pretty loose fitting allows me to focus on just one area of pants fitting…the crotch. There are so many parts to fitting a crotch and sometimes I just get overwhelmed with assessing them as well as a the waist as well as the hip width. So, it was nice to not worry about those other things and just focus on the one thing.
I love all the pockets in this design. I was a little leary of the front hip pockets, but their size is just about perfect and I don’t feel they draw attention to my hips.
I placed the back pockets exactly where the pattern suggests which I never do and this is why…they are too far apart! I could easily move them in 2” closer to the center back seam. That said, the height of them is almost spot on and the size is just what I like!
The v shaped back is a nice detail and construction is made about as easy as it can considering all that’s going on here. Helen did a sew-along for just these steps on her IG and it was really helpful to see her do it. I’m not sure I would have made it out alive without that. haha.
I’ve seen some people combine the neckline and straps of the Helen’s Closet York Pinafore with the Yanta and that might be my next stop on the overall/pinafore train!
The fabric is a cotton twill which is perfect for these overalls. I got the fabric, button, and pattern as part of the Indie Stitch subscription box. It was really nice to not have to worry about collecting everything I needed to finish these overalls. I just opened the box and got to work! They even included machine needles, thread, and hand-stitching needles for the hand stitching parts! It’s a really cool service. I’ve linked it in the description box if you want to check it out!
And, with that, I think I’ve about covered everything there is to say about the Yanta overalls. Let me know if you had any similar issues with crotch fitting your Yantas.