The Gymboree Knock-Off Shirt

This past February, my daughter, Molly, received an outfit from Gymboree for her birthday. It was super cute and comfortable! Unfortunately, she outgrew the shirt length-wise already. So I decided to try and copy it, and here's what I got!

The Gymboree Knock-Off Shirt

Here's what the original Gymboree shirt looked like:

It fit her tiny frame great, except for length! So, I started with a traced t-shirt pattern, like the one I did here.

I used a t-shirt from the discard pile and cut out the back normal, lining up the bottom edge of the pattern with the hemmed edge of the shirt to take advantage of the hem.

For the front, I cut out the pieces like this: The main front piece was placed an inch or two away from the fold to make it wider then the back and cut straight across the top where the bottom curve of the neck is. The shoulder pieces were cut using the armhole edges, but were made striaght down the neck edges and were longer to attach to the front piece. The sleeves I cut off the shirt and left as is. I also cut a 1" piece across the width of the shirt to use as single fold bias tape. Whew! I hope that makes sense!

First, I sewed the shoulder seams and ironed the seams towards the back.

Next, I serged across the top straight edge of the front piece and ironed it down about 3/8". The serging probably isn't necessary, but the original had it, so I did it too!

With right sides together, I sewed the 1" strip to the neck edge of the back and shoulders using a stretch stitch at 1/4" seam allowance. An almost straight zig-zag can also be used!

Then ironed the unsewn edge to the middle and folded it again to the inside and sewed it down. Just like applying single fold bias tape to finish the edge. Again, use a stretch stitch or almost straight zig-zag.

Using elastic thread in the bobbin, I shirred 8 rows, 1/4" apart and 1/4" from the top through the folded over edge and then steamed them to get them to shrink up tight.

Matching up bottom hems and armholes, I sewed the front main piece onto the shoulder pieces, sewing at the top line of shirring.

I gathered the top 6" of the sleeves and sewed them to the body of the shirt.

Since I used the sleeves directly from the old t-shirt, they were already hemmed. So I sewed a little bit up from the edge to create a casing for some 1/4" elastic. I threaded 8" of elastic for each sleeve and secured the ends.

Then I sewed up the side seams! Shirt done, but it needed some detail. The original had a ribbon bow with hanging daisies.

For my shirt I made a yellow rick-rack flower and secured it with a button center.

Gymboree Knock-Off Shirt finished!

It even matches the leggings that she wore with the original! Yay!

Cute puffy sleeves!

Definitely long enough for her!

This is the strawberry she's been eyeing. :)

(Try to ignore the gum in her mouth! I forgot to make her spit it out!)

I think we love this shirt! :)

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