Baby Size Referee

A dear friend of mine contacted me because she wants to have her baby boy be a referee for Halloween.  The only problem is that it's a really hard costume to come by in a size 9 months.  Luckily she had an old referee shirt that could be transformed.

I started with this adult sized shirt.  I pinned in the collar at the seam to shrink it down to baby size (using a 9 month shirt as a guide)

then I turned it inside out and sewed along the existing seam where I pinned.

I trimmed off the excess and grabbed my 9 month shirt again to use as a pattern.

I lined it up to the center of my collar and pinned it in place.  Next I cut around the shirt (through both top and bottom layers) leaving about 1/2 inch around it to allow for seams.  Here's where I am so far. Notice, I cut the bottom in a curve like the original shirt.  To get it right I cut it out on paper first, then pinned it on.  I also made the length of the shirt about 3 inches longer to allow for the curve.

Next, I used the existing sleeves to create smaller sleeves. Lining up with the top side of the sleeve. ( I used my 9 month shirt to cut out a little template of the sleeve)

Although I didn't take pictures of the next part, you basically just sew all the pieces together at this point.  I opened up the shirt and pinned on the sleeves.  You sew the top of the sleeve on first then sew up the bottom (like in a standard pattern).  Once I had the sleeves on, I sewed up the sides of the shirt and hemmed the bottom.

The end product is a miniature referee shirt.  It even looks store bought with the tag still in from the existing shirt.

Hope it works out well, Annette.  Super quick and fun way to get a costume together.  You could use this same method to turn just about any old shirt you have into a baby sized one.