Oldest Nephew's Ninja Outfit

Oldest nephew turned six today. Since before Christmas, he's been begging for a ninja outfit. It's been highly amusing because his "I want a ninja outfit" is typically followed with "Aunt Sissy will make it for me!" Which, okay, is true. ;-) I'll happily make him a very ridiculous dress up closet because I know I would have loved one when I was his age.

Since he already has black pants, I just made the shirt/jacket. It's hard to tell the photos because he's posing - Nonna got him plastic ninja accessories like the headband and nunchakus- but the jacket is out of black cotton. I cut the back on the fold, just cut out normal sleeves, and cut the front pieces at an angle so the front folds over itself and ties in the bottom corner.

I used the pieces from New Look 6398 again (same as the Star Trek uniforms). The big difference from the pattern is the front. Rather than cut the front on the fold, I moved the front side to the edge and cut the front at an angle. In order for the jacket to tie correctly, I sewed only the shoulders to the back piece at first. I then took a long strip of black cotton cut on the bias and sewed that around the opening/neckline area. Once that was sewn down, I took a non-bias strip of black cotton and matched it to the bottom front seam of the front left side so that the tie piece would be at the side seam. I sewed the strip all the way across the bottom and sewed the rest of it shut so it could be a tie (with the bow on the left side).

I then sewed the side seam for the right side and the back but not the left side. I used another non-bias strip of black cotton along the bottom of the back and right side. Once I sewed that down along the bottom, I folded the left side's tie toward the right side of the fabric (right sides together!) and sewed down the side seam. This made it possible to tie correctly.

I hope that all makes sense! He was a very happy camper with his ninja outfit!