Your basket is empty.
Continue Shopping
Storybook Overalls
Super easy to knit, our Storybook Overalls pattern has the vintage charm of a classic picture book. And our new Daily Wool Sport is the ideal yarn for a day in the life of a baby, soft and light in the hand, yet hardworking and resilient—an eagerly anticipated sibling to our beloved Daily Wool Worsted. You need just two skeins for any size, from tiny newborns to busy toddlers!
Start this tale at the back cover, cast on all the stitches for the garter stitch back bib and straps (knit lengthwise!) at the same time. Increases shape the corners where the straps and bibs meet, and once your straps are wide enough, you bind off the stitches along their outer edges and continue working the back bib flat. Knitting the straps lengthwise creates clean edges, keeps the straps from stretching out, and is far less fiddly than working lots of tiny rows.
After knitting the back bib, you’ll cast on for the front bib and then switch to stockinette to join front to back and work the body in the round. Shaping at the hips and a generous gusset ensure there’s plenty of room to wear the overalls over a diaper. Finally, you knit each leg in the round and graft the gusset closed with Kitchener Stitch.
The very last step is sewing the buttons onto the straps for just the right fit… If you need to move them as your little one gets a little less little, you can!
Daily Wool Sport is a sport-weight yarn with a tidy 4-ply spin, clear stitch definition, and a lively bounce to its step. This 100% superwash wool yarn is soft enough for baby to wear from good morning to good night, yet durable enough for crawling, rolling, and toddling. It’s helpfully machine wash- and dry-able, too, so you can always toss your overalls in the wash, ready for tomorrow’s adventure.
Pick from 24 artfully heathered colors that give even the simplest stitches an expressive, illustrated quality. Each color feels warm and familiar, perfectly suited to babies and toddlers and the stories they’re just beginning to live.
Cast on with a beautiful yarn built for long-term love and enjoy a pattern that’s clever in its construction and thoughtful in every detail. Choose your favorite color of Daily Wool Sport and watch the Storybook Overalls leap off the page and into a baby’s everyday world!
Yarn lovers, if you adore the yarn used in this project, you’ll love exploring all of our other yarn collections! Discover over 55 thoughtfully designed yarns in nearly every natural fiber and in every spectacular color you can imagine. Only available here at Purl Soho’s online yarn store, where every skein is created with care and your creativity in mind!
Pattern designed and written by Purl Soho designer, Hiromi Glover. See even more of Hiromi’s work on her Instagram!
Story written by Andrea Lotz for Purl Soho.
Materials
- 2 skeins of Purl Soho’s Daily Wool Sport, 100% superwash wool yarn. Each skein of this sport-weight yarn is 300 yards/ 100 grams; approximately 340 (385, 430, 510) total yards required. We used the colors Dew Blue and Lake Blue.
- US 3 (3.25 mm), 16-inch circular knitting needles OR US 3, 32-inch circular needles for Magic Loop
- A set of US 3 double pointed needles OR same US 3, 32-inch circular needles for Magic Loop
- A set of US 1½ (2.75 mm) double pointed needles OR US 1½, 32-inch circular needles for Magic Loop
- Stitch markers, including one unique
- Stitch holders or scrap yarn
- Two ½-, ⅝-, or ¾-inch buttons. We used Purl Soho’s ½-inch Medium Corozo Buttons in Gray Denim with the Dew Blue overalls and in Kiln Red with the Lake Blue overalls.
- A Storybook Overalls Pattern PDF
GAUGE
26 stitches and 52 rows = 4 inches in garter stitch on larger needles
26 stitches and 36 rounds = 4 inches in stockinette stitch on larger needles
SIZES
Newborn (3–6 months, 6–12 months, 12–18 months)
To fit actual chest circumference of approximately 15 (17, 18, 19) inches with approximately 1–2 inches of ease
- Finished Strap Length: 7½ (7¾, 8¼, 8½) inches
- Finished Chest Circumference: 16½ (18½, 19¾, 21) inches
- Finished Hip Circumference: 22½ (24, 25, 25¾) inches
- Finished Front Bib Width: 5½ (5¾, 6¼, 6¾) inches
- Finished Length from Underarm to Gusset: 7 (7¼, 7¾, 8½) inches
- Finished Ankle Circumference: 7 (7¾, 8, 8¼) inches
- Finished Inseam: 5½ (6, 6½, 7) inches
Samples: The Dew Blue overalls are the 6–12 months size, and the Lake Blue overalls are the 12–18 months size, worn by a 12-month-old baby.
PATTERN
The Storybook Overalls Pattern is available as a PDF download.
Share your progress and connect with the community by tagging your pics with #PurlSoho. We can’t wait to see what you make!
Learn About Daily Wool Sport + All Our Beautiful Yarns
This project is incredibly soft and conveniently machine wash- and dry-able in our beautiful Daily Wool Sport, a 100% superwash wool yarn. A round yarn spun from 4 tidy plies, this sport-weight yarn is un-prone to pilling, with a bounce to its step and a lovely stitch definition. Daily Wool Sport is ready to knit and wear on repeat!
More Free Knitting Patterns
- Be sure to explore our growing collection of Daily Wool Sport knitting patterns and cast on!
More Sport-Weight Yarns
- Shop our entire collection of sport-weight yarn
- If you want to use a different yarn, be sure to take the time to get the correct gauge. Need help? Check our All About Gauge Tutorial, our Yarn Substitution article, and our Complete Guide To Yarn for lots of helpful information.
More Yarns With Similar Fiber
- Shop Daily Wool Worsted, this yarn’s worsted-weight sibling
- Shop machine-washable yarn
- Shop superwash wool yarn
- Shop wool yarn
Looking for more inspiration? Explore all of our knitting patterns (including tons of free knitting patterns) and knitting tutorials, buy one of our many knitting kits and yarn bundles, and shop for beautiful yarn. We have over 35 gorgeous natural fiber yarns in 100’s of magnificent colors, designed to bring integrity, beauty, and joy to your next knitting project and only available at Purl Soho!
I’m wondering if there’s a small mistake in this pattern. I’m making the largest size and at the point of “binding off straps.” I have 168 stitches on my needle (the correct number!) After binding off the first 61 stitches and removing the marker, the pattern reads to knit 44, remove marker, then k 1. But I have 45 stitches between the 2 markers. Should this read knit 45 and then remove marker? Or am I doing something wrong? (Second time I am trying this and I wound up with 45 stitches again between the markers)
Hi Mary!
Thanks so much for writing in! Great work so far on your Storybook Overalls!
This math can be a little tricky to visualize and I’m happy to help. I think it’s possible you may have bound off 60 stitches instead of 61. Often, we work 61 stitches thinking we bound off 61 stitches, but its a little tricky because we had to knit one stitch to start binding off. The pattern notes one stitch remains on the needle after binding off, so we actually end up working 62 stitches in order to bind off 61 stitches.
I hope this helps! Please reach out with any other questions you may have!
Happy knitting!
Hills
Can you explain how this is constructed? I read the pattern many times but don’t understand the sequence. Do you have an illustration of what happens in each stage of the pattern?
Hi Leigh,
Thanks so much for reaching out. I’m so glad to hear the Storybook Overalls caught your eye!
These overalls are knit top-down and start with the straps and the top portion of the back bib.You’ll bind off the straps and shape the back bib. After that, you can start the front bib, make buttons, and continue shaping the front bib. You’ll then join to knit the front and back in the round. Following that, you’ll shape the hips and gusset and divide for the legs. Finally, you’ll graft the gusset, sew the buttons on, weave in your ends and gently wet block.
Sadly, I don’t have an illustration available at this time, but I would be glad to pass along your interest in a diagram or schematic for this pattern. If you’re still running into trouble, please feel free to write us at [email protected] and I’m sure we can find a way to help!
Happy knitting!
Hills
Can you explain why the two buttonholes are knitted differently?
Hi Leigh,
Thanks for this great question. I’m really glad to see you’re working on the Storybook Overalls, and I’m happy to help.
The two different buttonholes in the buttonhole row are worked differently because they are mirrors of each other rather than identical. They lean in opposite directions on either side of the bib.
I hope this helps, and please feel free to reach out with any other questions you might have!
Happy knitting,
Hills