Pattern Drafting – Boys basic collared shirt…

Today I finally began drafting a pattern to use to create a 'Dex Hamilton' costume shirt. I found a really helpful tutorial on drafting a shirt block here at burdastyle.com.
It is for a men's collared shirt but I just modified it slightly to resize it down to a boys size 7.
For those of you who don’t know who Dex Hamilton is (I only have 2 girls and had never heard of him before but apparently a pretty popular cartoon character for young boys), here’s a picture to give you an idea of what I’m hoping my shirt will replicate:
 
I am going to use the shirt block as the base for the pattern and then create a collar and shirt front to match the picture….
Here’s the start of my pattern draft:

I drew the pattern up on some spare wrapping paper (I’d normally use butcher paper but I’d packed it away in the girls room and they were sleeping so I didn’t want to risk waking them up). I did start to draw on the white side but made a bit of a boo boo with my first measurements so I flipped it over to the lovely gold side.
Here it is again but with the sleeve draft too:

The directions from burdastyle.com were pretty good (a little confusing on first read but it all made sense once I got started).
I then re-traced the sleeve onto a sheet of tracing paper so I could cut the pieces out.

Tomorrow I’ll cut the fabric and start to sew this baby together… Remember, this is what I want to end up with:
   So, I’ll keep you posted on how it goes… hopefully in a day or so I’ll have a lovely Dex Hamilton shirt to show off. This one’s a special request for the son of one of the mum’s at playgroup… really hoping it works out.

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