Burda Kids T-shirt

First, I would like to thank Jaqui C. from Kiwi Land (aka New Zealand, near Hobbiton! Jealous!) for gifting me with a Spring and a Winter issue of Burda Kids patterns. Between the two issues, there are enough basic silhouettes and sizes for boys that I will not have to buy a pattern for him until he’s a teenager. You rock chica!

Second, I can not believe how little fabric it takes to make him a shirt! I found two remnants each around 1/2 yard, though they weren’t cut straight so once I put them on grain, they were less. I was able to make 2 raglan sleeve tees with embellishments from less than 1 yd.. Can you believe that?

The smallest size for this shirt was 104 (the equivalent of 4T/USA). My son is just out of 2T and into 3T for height, but he’s really not fat, so his pants are always loose. To downsize this pattern, I just traced it off and did not add the seam allowances. Then I stitched it at 1/4″ and that worked it rather well. I just added one inch for hem, but I ended up not stitching it, as the shirt looked so short on him. I had to leave the edge raw.  Of course, I cut out both tops at the same time, so I will have to fix this for next time.

The only part I didn’t like was the neckline. They didn’t include the usual binding strip so I just folded over and stitched as directed. It stretched and looks wonky. I think I’ll change that next time as well. The final embellishments on the front don’t lay smooth as I skipped the stabilizer. Alas, I didn’t think about it. Now I know there are products specifically for embroidering on t-shirts. I will have to get some of this. This time you can tell they stretched and the heavy stitching doesn’t allow it to bounce back.

Here’s the magazine covers. Thanks again Jacqui! I plan to play with bermudas and button up shirts in the near future.