Little Solider Shirt

I can't remember if I wrote about this (I think I didn't), but last year I got fed up with Winifred Aldrich's "Metric pattern cutting for children's wear and baby wear".  Or rather, I didn't understand what I was doing and the blocks were too boxy.  A nice person over at the sewing forum suggested I get Natalie Bray's books, which I did.  Nice and cheap and second-hand.  See here and here.  I read the first one cover-to-cover, and in the second one I read the children's wear chapter.

This is my first attempt at a shirt from her blocks.  I'm pretty pleased!  The bodice block for aged 2-3 actually fits my (pretty giant) 14 month-old like a glove.

Behold: Toddler Button in his fancy new threads:

The fabric is a cute Laura Ashley print of soldiers with a background of blue pin-dots and red diamonds.  It was a kind gift from a family friend.  (Thank you, Sue!)  Sadly, since I made the shirt in a windowless room (no jokes) and mostly during the dark evenings, I failed to notice the fabric was light cream, rather than the white I had supposed when picking out my thread.  Whoops, although I suspect I'll be the only one scrutinising the top-stitching enough to notice.  I modified the armcye in my pattern a bit after making this, as it was still an effort to get the sleeve caps to set flat like in his other casual shirts.

TButton wore his shirt to Ikea (this seems like it's becoming a tradition: I don't always go there, honest).  It's a relief to return from Ikea and still like the hand-sewn clothes we went in!  Note he is smiling in the above photo: that's because it's taken before the flat-pack-hell-hole, hence also the newly-pressed-new-shirt look he's sporting.

Are you wondering how I got him to pose like a menswear model while holding a little teddy by his paw all cute-like?  Do you want to know my secret?  The answer is... fluke.  All the rest look blurry and manic like this: