Handmade Polo Shirt with embroidered patch

Much like my zip-neck Freya top, this make was something that I have had planned since I bought the fabric but it's taken me a while to actually make it. I knew as soon as I saw this fabric that I wanted to buy it, it was just too cool to pass over. I think it's Airtex, something that I've never seen for sale before. I also loved the colour so much and I really wanted to make a polo shirt out of it.

I'm still really enjoying getting through the fabrics that I bought from Tomato in Tokyo, they're all fabrics that, almost a year later, I wouldn't hesitate to buy again. A quick update on where I am in terms of sewing up those fabrics: I've made a grey Linden, a purple Linden and a red turtleneck top from the ribbed fabrics, a pair of Anima Pants and a top for my mum from the checked fabrics, the top I'm sharing today from the blue Airtex fabric and then the only two fabrics left to be made into something are a pink jersey and a floral fabric. 

These makes are some of my absolute favourites, they're all things that I spent a long time planning to make something that I will wear again and again from the gorgeous fabrics.

Like I said, I've had this planned ever since I bought the fabric. I always knew I'd make it at some point so wasn't too worried about having the fabric lying around for a while. My main concern for this top was having no idea how to approach making a polo shirt. I didn't want to buy a pattern because the type of shirt I had in mind was quite specific. Also, most polo shirt patterns available are designed for men. I actually bought myself a polo shirt in February and in the end was able to use this as a base to create a pattern to make this one - I'm really not sure what I would have done had I not bought one though because I don't think I could have drafted this from scratch!

Although the construction of the shirt was fairly easy and I knew the order in which to do all the steps, the placket was pretty difficult. I googled lots of different placket tutorials but none of them looked like the shirt that I was trying to copy. You can see that there isn't a seam on the right-hand side of the placket which I really wanted to achieve for the more fluid look. All the tutorials I could find had a seam added in there (you can see the difference if you look closely at this placket), so I basically had to make it up as I went along using the RTW shirt to try and figure it out.

I'm so happy it worked in the end but there was a moment where I thought it was a complete disaster and I did also have to do a bit of hand sewing to close up a slit I cut!

The best part of this shirt is, without a doubt, the little fish embroidered patch that I added on! I really love embroidered patches and have seen quite a few RTW tops with them added on recently. I don't add them to my makes very often but I thought this shirt needed one as the finishing touch. I bought the patch in Japan at the start of our holiday before I bought the fabric, but as soon as I planned this shirt I knew that the fish was perfect for it. It's also nice to have put it on something rather than just keeping it in a drawer for years which is what sometimes happens! I definitely need to add patches to my clothes more often, I think the only time I've done it previously was with this top.

I enjoyed a very successful button shopping trip a few weeks ago when my local craft shop reopened (it's the small things in life!) when I bought the buttons for my Shelby Dress. I wasn't intending to buy buttons for this shirt as I was going to just use white shirt buttons but I saw these and really loved them. They were just so perfect for this top, and luckily also ended up being the perfect colour to match the fabric. I didn't have a fabric sample with me when I bought them so it was a bit of a gamble but luckily they were just right.

You might notice that the buttonholes aren't sewn in a matching thread colour - I actually did the first one in a matching thread that I found in my sewing box, but the thread that I had was really old, too thick, there wasn't enough of it and the buttonhole looked so awful that I unpicked it. I wasn't sure which colour to use and tentatively chose a pale grey thread but I actually love it! I'm really proud of how neat these buttonholes are and I also think that the grey looks so good with the pale blue.

To make this shirt extra-nice, I made a 1cm wide rouleau loop and hand sewed it along the inside of the collar. It took a long time but makes it so nice, especially as I wasn't happy with the messy finish inside once I sewed the collar, you could just about see the unfinished seams when the shirt was on.

There was a moment when I really regretted not making this shirt long-sleeved. The reason I didn't was that the shirt I already own has long sleeves and I didn't want the two shirts to be too similar. I was worried that the short sleeve would end up looking strange but I think it's worked really well. I turned up the fabric at the hem to create a cuff which I like a lot.

I'm really happy with this shirt and I love that I've made something really nice out of the fabric. This shirt really came together thanks to the finishing touches - the buttons, the patch, the cuffs. I'm also really pleased to have learnt a new skill of making a shirt with a collar and placket, although next time I think I'll use a pattern! In fact, having made my dad a shirt over three years ago maybe I should make him a polo shirt next!