These fun overalls were inspired some time ago when my little boy started sprouting up, seemingly over night, leaving the hems of pants that fit perfectly well, or were even still too big, waving around far above his little feet and the tops of his shoes. Girls can get away with this phenomena a bit more easily, passing off jeans that used to cascade over shoes as Capri pants. You see, every mom and grandma knows that our wee ones tend to grow like weeds vertically and only very slowly horizontally. Could I easily make clothes longer. . . without the fuss of taking out hems, adding fabric, ripping out the hem and purl rows, etc?
These overalls, Grow-veralls I call them, are my solution to this problem. I made them striped so you could use anything in your stash that gets the gauge (and you are willing to wash in whatever way the fiber requires). I made them striped, too, so that you could add to them quickly and easily and at any time without worrying about dye lots or whether you have enough of such and so color. No, add to them with abandon when your little sprout starts to shoot up. If a knee gets ripped up, no worries. Simply take out that block of color and rework. Quite simple.
Intermediate. Requires knowledge of knitting, purling, increasing and decreasing, working on circular and double-pointed needles, and some simple seaming and hand-sewing.
22 sts and 26 - 28 rows over 4"/10 cm on a US 7/4.5 mm or adjust needle size up or down to obtain stitch gauge.
Size Amount
18 mo 500 yds
24 mo 600 yds
2T 700 yds
3T 800 yds
4T 900 yds
5T 1000 yds
Size 7 (4.5mm) 16" (40cm) circular needle (for grow-veralls pant legs)
Size 7 (4.5mm) 24" (60) circular needle (for body of grow-veralls)
Size 7 (4.5mm) set of double pointed needles (for straps)
Blunt and sharp tapestry needles
Sewing needle
Suspender button and 1 1/2" (3.75 and Suspender Button Hook
1/8 yd non-fusible medium weight interfacing (for inside bib facing)
No errors have been reported for this pattern.