Home-made Girl's Buttoned-Down Shirt

My daughter asked for a buttoned-down shirt and I obliged. Making such a shirt may be intimidating at first, but with patience, it can be done with beautiful results. First of all, you need to find a pattern for such a shirt. For me, I've been sewing with SureFit Designs' Children's Kit, which comes with a pattern drafting bodice for childrens' sizes. All you have to do is measure your child, copy the measurements, connect the dots for the back bodice, front bodice, sleeve, collar style and cuff patterns. The front bodice comes with a connected interfacing. You have to also make a back collar interfacing to join with the front interfacing.

The instructions to assemble the pieces are provided in the kit. They are very straightforward. If you want a placket (slit) for your sleeve to enable easier wearing when you put your hand through your sleeve, you can learn how to do it outside the kit.  There are several videos and tutorial blogs if you google them. I decided to sew a continuous placket, which I find the easiest. 

Here are some links:

http://www.burdastyle.com/techniques/faced-placket
http://basicsewingtips.blogspot.com/2009/10/continuous-bound-placket.html
http://childrensfashionworkshop.squarespace.com/sewing-bits/2009/6/30/sewing-a-continuous-bound-placket.html

Here's a video tutorial for young girls on how to sew this placket style.



Sewing buttons and button holes can also be intimidating, but they are actually easy to do, with patience and the right tools. Your modern sewing machine probably comes with a buttonhole sewing foot and button sewing foot with a darning adaptor.  Here's a video tutorial showing you how to sew buttonholes using a standard buttonhole foot.




Here's a video tutorial on how to sew buttons on your garment.  You can only use flat buttons with a machine. I did mine by hand, which I find the fastest!



A great primer on sewing buttons and buttonholes can be found here.

http://www.ca.uky.edu/hes/fcs/FACTSHTS/CT-MMB-189.pdf

So, after all these learning, I made my very own buttoned-down shirt for my daughter.