Toddler Party Shirt

I like my kids to have a more formal outfit in their wardrobe for special events. We recently celebrated my Father-In-Laws 70^th birthday, and Little Man needed a smart shirt for the event:

The shirt’s now also been worn for my husband’s 40^th birthday party and will probably be his Christmas outfit too.

I was originally going to make the Henry shirt from the Sewing for Boys book, but after reading some reviews about problems with fit on the smaller sizes, I decided to look elsewhere for a pattern (I didn’t have the time or spare fabric to deal with problems!). So I went with my other favourite source of kids’ patterns: Ottobre Design magazine. This is the Happy Madras shirt from the Summer 3/2012 edition.

The fabric is from my stash, with the main section being Alexander Henry’s Monkey’s Bizness “beep beep” in blue. I didn’t have quite enough so I made the sleeves out of the coordinating Rush Hour in blue. The bias tape and sleeve cuffs is Just Wing It by Momo for Moda.

Little Man loves it and he tells everyone that “Mummy made it for me” (Lots of ladies came up to me at the 70^th to ask me about it – I actually got a little embarrassed!). I love that it’s smart but not too formal – he still looks comfortable playing in it, and it goes well with shorts as well as pants.

What’s your favourite little boy shirt pattern?