Instead of the Big Five, this shirt offers up elephants, cheetahs and zebras. Belle spotted the fabric on the same shopping trip to Fancy Silk Stores when we bought the elephant print cotton of the little boy’s shirt. She loved it immediately & decided it would make a fabulous shirt. We’ve made view 3 of this pattern three times now, I say we because I made the first one in a Paul Smith striped cotton and she made the second in a blue Liberty lawn.
It’s a simple shape with darts for shaping, a straight hem & one piece collar. The sleeves have a turn-up that could be left down if you wanted them a little longer. I used flat fell seams throughout & interfaced the facings & collar with a fine sheer polyester fusible. The buttons are from a local charity shop, where I was able to buy a couple of bottles full of vintage buttons for £2! Absolute bargain!
Apologies for all the wrinkles, Belle was determined to wear this to school today & we had no time for photos in the morning. She also decided to wear a t-shirt under it, so it doesn’t hang quite the way I’d like.
There really isn’t a lot to say about this pattern, if you’re in the market for a simple shirt pattern that’s got a great shape – this is it!
I still have a large pile of dresses to make, but I think my next vintage project will be a jacket for Belle. Although I’ve made Butterick 9563 three times, none of them have been for Belle to keep. I have a piece of ex-Paul Smith cotton canvas bought at the NEC earlier in the year that is destined to be one of these jackets. With Autumn well and truly here I had better get cracking! 🙂
Look at that fabric! I’m not surprised your daughter got a ton of compliments on it!