Sewing: Anthro Copy Cat

Last week we went to Atlanta with some friends for the day and while there I made everyone accompany me to one of my favorite stores, Anthropologie. When I walk into that store I just wish I could live there. Seriously :)

Anthropologie has such amazing clothes and things for the house… and I can’t afford any of it! Ha ha ha, poor me. But, I always have to take a look because I always come away with a million ideas that I want to copy. After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?!

One of the things I fell in love with on this trip was this cute little t-shirt (Take a look at the link because you can get a close up of all the details.):

anthro shirt

I was smitten. I know it’s just a simple t-shirt but I loved it. So, doing what I always do, I set out to recreate my own.

shirt

First, I bought a plain white shirt at Target. I picked a shirt that was a bit thicker than the tissue weight like the Anthro one because I knew I was going to be doing some sewing on it and I didn’t want it to snag. I also picked one that had short sleeves instead of sleeves that landed just above the elbow mostly because this is what I could find. Although, Target does have one that is tissue weight and the sleeves come to the elbow if you are interested in copying the Anthro one exactly.

Next, I picked out my striped fabric, thread, and buttons. I couldn’t find any striped fabric in the blue color so I went with red and I’m glad I did because I love it!

shirt collage

Then, I started to assemble the shirt. The neckline on my shirt was a little high so I cut it and created a new, lower neckline. Since the Anthro one was a bit ragged, it worked out to my benefit. I also added some more stripes and buttons to the bottom of the shirt.

shirt full

So there you have it. My first attempt at trying to recreate an item of clothing. It turned out pretty good although there are definitely things I would do differently if I were starting over. I ended up having a bit too much fabric on the sleeves but it works and I’m happy with the result. And my total cost? $11. Not bad for a $48 shirt :)

What about you? Have you ever tried to make a copy cat article of clothing or am I the only crazy one?!