From Camp Shirt to Cool Retro Bowling Shirt

Recently I altered Butterick 3475, a simple camp shirt, for my nephew, who is super-skinny for a seven-year-old. He has practically lived in the shirt since I made it for him, so I have been working on two additional versions. The original was made in a skull and crossbone pattern:


I made a second version for him using another skeleton fabric that he picked out:


I didn't even notice until I was sewing it that it might be slightly inappropriate for a little one...well, in more than it is decorated with dancing skeletons. These skeletons are drinking beer and dancing on the tables, they are wasted!


Oh, well. Hopefully no one will notice. I also decided to make him a third version, but I wanted to "liven it up" a bit, and turn it into a retro-style bowling shirt, with the wide vertical stripe on either side of the placket.

I started by taking the original pattern that I made for him and drawing on it where I wanted the stripe to be:



I then re-traced the pattern in three parts, and added seam allowances:


From there, I cut out the pattern, cutting the center stripe from a contrast to the main part of the shirt. To prepare the front pattern pieces, I sewed the three pieces together. I used french seams, and then stitched them down on either side of the stripe:


I did that because I didn't want the fabric to ravel, and I also didn't want the seams to rub his chest, since he doesn't wear undershirts. The top stitching isn't very visible from the front:


If you look really closely, the red stripe isn't solid red. It has a scale pattern on it, to look like "dragon skin," to coordinate with the oriental dragons on the rest of the shirt. From there, I finished the front edge with binding like I normally do, and the piece is ready to sew normally:


Here is the finished product:



I think he's going to poo his little drawers when he sees them on Sunday! He's been bugging me about dragons for almost as long as he's been bugging me about skeletons. And flames.