While the rest of the world was cooing over the royal newborn, New Zealanders were squinting for a better look at the blanket he was wrapped up in. 

When the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William left hospital this morning, the heir was swaddled in a white knitted blanket.

The scalloped fabric floating beneath him looked very similar to the finely knitted shawl New Zealand gifted to the family.

Cue frenzied mission to find out if it was.

"Initially I thought it just could be, but it's very hard to tell so we're actually recording the next lot of news so we can pause it and have a better look," Kiwi Margaret Stove, who was also responsible for Prince William's shawl, told RadioLive this morning.

But now, after further reflection Lyttleton's Stove has said it was "definitely not" the one New Zealand sent.

"Most of the shawl is white, so it's hard to see, but if you look down the bottom it's a completely different shawl. It's got a different edging and not the fern pattern that our gift had."

Stove said she was not surprised or disappointed that the duchess had not yet used the shawl.

"She's probably got her own family shawl that she wanted to use. I'm not surprised ours is not her first pick," she said.

"The best chance of them using it would be when a New Zealand dignitary is visiting or something like that. There are so many countries and so many shawls that she really can't please everyone."

"We just don't know...we'll track it down." Lockwood Smith, High Commissioner of New Zealand to the United Kingdom had previously said of the now-famous shawl.

Steven Joyce had already told NewstalkZB his early advice was that it was not "our shawl" - and that he believed the baby who would be king did not make his public debut in Kiwi knitting.