The Little Jaws Shirt

“Happy Birthday To You”~ Patty Hill

In between my last post and this one, my blog had some technical issues. I could not load pictures, or text. I knew the problem was beyond my capabilities. I turned the issue over to my tech guy (my cousin Christopher) and he started investigating the problem. Turns out, web site is too big! I could either delete some of my older posts or expand my site. Rather than delete, I chose to expand.

If you read my last blog post, you will recall that a “since day one” fan of my blog mentioned that her son was having an upcoming “Jaws” themed birthday party. I volunteered to make him a shirt for his party, and also made a Jaws puppet. Last time I showed off the puppet, and now it was time for the shirt. So, after all of that, here is the follow up to the Jaws puppet! I present to you, the little Jaws shirt!

Little Wyatt needed a Jaws shirt for his themed birthday party, and I picked out this pattern from 1976. The fabric, I randomly had.

If you’re thinking that you’ve seen me make a Jaws shirt before, you’re right! Back in October of 2024 I posted this post featuring a Jaws shirt that I made for David. For that post, the link is below.

You’re Gonna Need A Bigger Blog.. – Sewing With Grandma

Funny that I named that post “You’re Gonna Need A Bigger Blog” and that’s exactly what my technical problem was!

As for this Jaws shirt, I decided to make it a little bit bigger than Wyatt’s current size. This way he would have many more opportunities to wear it as he grows.

I laid the pattern out onto the fabric and got it all pinned.

First step was to stay stitch around the neck. This helps the fabric keep it’s shape when you add the collar later. Next was to pin the front pieces to the back pieces at the shoulders.

The pattern calls for interfacing on the inside facings of the shirt opening. Got those all prepped and ready to sew!

The facings all pinned in place on the front pieces.

I prepped the collar by adding interfacing to one side of a collar piece, then pinning them to be sewn, right sides together.

Once the collar is sewn onto the neck, you pin the inside down and hand stitch it into place. Maybe you could do it with a machine, but to me it looks better if I take the time to hand stitch it. Even with all of our modern advancements with sewing, some things need to be done the old fashioned way!

The sleeves were ready to go on!

All pinned in place and ready to sew.

It was going along pretty easily and then the sleeve directions got me. If you look closely at the pattern envelope, you’ll see that the short sleeve option has a sort of cuff look to it. Check out that dapper guy in the green shirt and bow tie! You can see the cuff look well on his picture.

To make the cuff look, I folded the sleeve edge and basted it into place.

Then you flip it and sew it. I had to read it a few times to get it right!

I picked out some dark blue buttons out of my stash.

I finished it off with a tag.

I was very excited once the shirt and puppet were both complete!

Shirt and puppet were delivered and ready for the party!

Check out some of these amazing decorations that were also at the party!

The cake is also amazing.

But it could not compare to the amazing cuteness of this face and his shirt and puppet!

Wyatt was thrilled with his shirt and puppet. He said, “her made it a little big for me”. He also immediately started using the puppet to chomp everything in sight!

The simple happiness that a felt puppet and new shirt can bring is worth the effort of the sew.

Wyatt did have a “Jaw-som” birthday!

Wyatt is such a fun little guy! I knew the puppet would be a fun addition to this sew. I have worked at his school and sometimes at lunch time we would play “banana phone”, where we would use his banana and whatever I had handy to play telephone and discuss lunch. He has such a great imagination!

His mom text me weeks after the party and told me that Wyatt had caught a bug, and it was about to get chomped too! He’s still playing with that puppet!

As for me, onto the next!