Sewing children's dungarees with grow-along turn-up

Today, I have brought you a detailed guide for grow-along dungarees. The practical hem of the dungarees allows the pant legs to be quickly lengthened or shortened by a few centimeters. The hem is secured with snaps.

In this sewing guide, I will explain the steps to sew the grow-along hem using the pattern for the children’s dungarees “Garden Lovers”, which already includes the grow-along hem. If you are using a different pattern, you will need to mark the hem adjustment on the pant legs according to the instructions below.

By the way, dungarees are also great to wear in summer—especially when made from a light linen fabric.

Required Materials:

4 snaps, possibly snap pliers
10 x 10 cm interfacing H180 or H200
pre-sewn ungarees with legs extended by 8 cm (e.g. “Garden Lovers” from Creavision Lab)

Sewing Instructions

If you use the “Garden Lovers” pattern as a base, it already includes longer leg lengths, and your dungarees have the correct measurements. If you are working with another children’s dungarees pattern, you will need to adjust the pattern pieces accordingly before cutting them out:

Adjusting the Pattern for the Grow-along Hem

To prepare the grow-along dungarees hem, you need a hem allowance of 4 cm on both the front and back of the pants. If the pattern already includes a hem allowance, extend it to 4 cm by drawing a line parallel to the finished length at a distance of 4 cm. This line will later serve as the fold line for the hem and will be called “Fold Hem.”

Now draw another parallel line 4 cm away from the “Fold Hem.” This line marks the hem fold for the pant hem and will be referred to as “Fold Hem.” Finally, draw a last line 3 cm from the “Fold Hem.” This is the cutting edge where you will cut the hem.

Next, you need to draw the side lines on both sides. If the pant leg is straight, like in the Garden Lovers dungarees, you can simply extend it with straight lines to the new cutting edge. Otherwise, you will need to mirror the side lines as you would the corners of a seam allowance.

Finally, mark the positions for the snaps on both sides of the pants. These should be 2 cm above the finished pant length and 1 cm above the “Fold Hem.”

Then sew the overall together (except for the bottom hem).

Instructions for the Grow-along Dungarees Hem

Next, turn the pants inside out and reinforce the snap positions within the pressed open seam allowances of the side and inner leg seams with approximately 2 x 3 cm interfacing (e.g., Vlieseline H200). To optimally reinforce the snap position, it is important that you iron on the interfacing only at this step.

Now attach the snaps according to the markings within the reinforced seam allowances. For the bottom snap, the socket sits on the right side of the fabric, and for the top snap, the prong is on the right side. The caps are on the left side of the fabric.