Dinosaur shirt - finished!

Have been holding off posting about this in the hope that I could take a "better" picture of the finished product, preferably modeled by DS, HOWEVER  he keeps wearing it to daycare etc... so its nearly always in the wash. Not a bad thing I guess!

So here it is the finally made up dinosaur print shirt (Simplicity 5537) for Cooper:

 

I tried out a new (for me) seam finish for this - the "clean seam" style (where you fold the seam allowance in and stitch very close to the fold.

I read about this method here, on the Burdastyle Perth WA Sewing blog.

I think it looks really nice BUT for some reason (maybe because this is a kids pattern?) there was a smaller seam allowance than I am used to (the "standard-ish" 1.5 cm) so I'm not quite sure if this finish will hold up well against fraying over time.

I also added a spare button to one of the inside side seams, copying RTW:

 

Recently I brought a pack of woven labels from Spotlight, one in particular seemed suited to the fabric colour scheme:

 

Tried to *think* about pattern placement to some extent when cutting out, hence the dinosaur (sort of) centre on each sleeve:

I also attempted to have the fabric print running so that there was a dinosaur head on each collar tip. Unfortunately I stuffed up the first collar I sewed so this one side is as close as I got:

Slightly wonky pocket stitching...

Despite my misgivings over crooked stitches and misplaced fabric motif's young Mr Cooper does love his new shirt so I am guessing this project was (more or less) a success! If I can get him to stay still in one spot long enough (and he hasn't pilfered it un-ironed out of the washing basket) I will post a pic up of it being modelled...;)

Happy sewing all!