Sewing shirts

Gareth had a wardrobe clear out recently and gave me one of his old shirts to cut up for sewing practise.  Since I liked the original shirt's design, I decided to just make a mini version for Rowan.  I thought it would give me practise with pattern matching the tribal design on the front, and generally be a good way to have a go at making shirts, which can be difficult, without ruining some expensive new material.  I used the shirt pattern from Small Dream Factory - you should really check out her site, she has some brilliant free tutorials on making baby and toddler clothes.  I particularly like that she uses lots of diagrams, so you can really follow what's going on.  Being new to sewing, I've found with some online guides I don't always understand what the text is describing, so having lots of pictures is brilliant!

The material I used was really shiny and slippery, so it made it very awkward to sew with. I also made some really basic errors (like sewing the sleeve on the outside of the shirt, so all the seams showed. Rookie mistake!) and making an utter mess of the collar.

This was the first time I'd made button holes and I they came out

ok.  They weren't quite as in line as I'd hoped, hence the slight 

puckering, but overall I was happy.

I was pleased with my pattern matching!

It took me awhile to complete this one, due to various 

time constraints, so Rowan had already started to 

outgrow it. I squeezed him into the shirt to take these photos.

Having now made one toddler shirt, I felt confident to go and buy some new material to make another.  Since it is Summer, I picked out the loudest material I could find (and busy patterns hide a multitude of sins). I showed what I bought when I got home, and I think the brightness temporarily blinded him.  

I made one size bigger, but I still think I should have added an inch or two to the length - Rowan is very long for his age.

This time, I sewed the sleeves on the right way around, and the collar looked pretty good!  I wouldn't be afraid to make another shirt at some point.

Rowan reluctantly posing.  I took the buckets he

was playing with to take the photo, and he wasn't 

happy about it.

Still thinking about buckets...

Finally, access to buckets after indulging his mum!