A few months ago, Megan Nielsen released a free bib add-on to her Flint Pants pattern and I immediately knew that I wanted to try it. The Flint Pants are a wide leg pant and the coolest part is that they don’t have a traditional closure so they’re super easy to sew. The pants kind of have a mini wrap at the waist that you can finish with a button or a tie. I personally love the look of the tie at the waist.
Back in 2017, I made the Flint Pants from a beautiful blue linen. I was gifted the linen by The Fabric Store a few years ago. This is the lagoon color and it’s so yummy. I really love their linen fabric and can’t recommend it enough. You can see my original post about these pants here. I still had almost a yard left of the linen so I had plenty to make these bibs. (Because the pants have been washed a few times, I can see a very slight color difference between the pants and the bibs but it’s only if you look closely.)
Before I made the pants, I also made a pair of Flint shorts (which I’m pretty sure is unblogged) to test the fit and construction. The shorts are made out of a mystery blended black fabric. I’ve actually worn the shorts more often because they’re black and just so easily go with everything. I’ve been thinking about dyeing my pants navy in the hopes that I’ll wear them more often, but first I had to try out the bib. And for the ultimate in versatility, the bib is detachable.
When I first made the Flints, it was prior to the size update for the pattern and I made between a S and M. I figured that that in-between size most closely matched up with the size 10 in the new pattern. So for the bibs, I cut a size 10 and because I’m tall, I added .375 inches to the length of the bib and 2” to the length of the strap. The straps turned out to be plenty long for me and I may end up shortening them.
The instructions for the bib are in a tutorial here. I decided to not sew buttonholes on the bib and just stitched the buttons and straps directly on. In retrospect, this makes it WAY HARDER to take the bib off when I need to use the restroom. To make the bib detachable, I used two snaps at the end of each strap and four snaps at the bottom of the bib. Then I attached the other side of the snaps to the inside of the waistband of the pants. I’ve been on a big snaps kick lately and even have a video tutorial for how to sew on snaps using a sewing machine. (Check it out here. And if you want to follow me on YouTube you can subscribe to my channel here.)
So, during my wear-test yesterday, I realized that these snaps are not super functional for this garment. They were constantly becoming unsnapped whenever I moved my torso very much. I am using very old, salvaged snaps which could be part of the problem. Or maybe there’s just too much twisting and turning for snaps at the waist. So, I may switch to buttons if I decide to wear these a lot. But really, I’d rather be working on new projects than re-doing something I’ve already done.
I love the look of the bibs with these pants. It was really fun to make them and I love wearing them. Except for the functionality problems which are all my doing anyway. These bibs are also perfectly timed for the #sewbibs challenge hosted by Heidi, Jessamy, Meg and Teri and the final week of #sewhappycolor hosted by Katie Kortman. (By the way, a bunch of bibs patterns are on sale for a few more weeks as part of the bibs challenge. Most of the sales are lasting until April 12, 2019. I’ve been really tempted to get the Kendrick Overalls by Hey June.)
