Scrappy Polos

 

When you have a challenge, you should meet it head on: face it, embrace it and conquer it, right?  Yeah, well guess what Polo Shirt Neckline Plackets?  Done, done and done.

 Polo Necklines and Me?  We’re pretty much like this now

I used an existing shirt to mock up a workable pattern, and just modified it for each boy’s size.  I used The Book’s illustrations to draft my placket and collar pieces.  Each of my boys picked out the print fabric they wanted from my scrap pile, most left over from diaper making.  We pilfered some of my husband’s old t-shirts, and even a maternity shirt of mine for coordinating fabric. 

In the end, I didn’t purchase anything new for any of the three shirts.  Even the buttons came from my random button jars.  So now my scrap pile is a little smaller and my kids have some awesome new shirts

Details:  The oldest went with a pirate/poison control theme.  I used Christie’s Silhouette for the back image, which was painted using a freezer paper stencil, then embroidered around it with black floss.  I also embroidered another little Jolly Roger image on the front lower left hem of the shirt

You can see the topstitching and contrasting placket detail better in this post.

The middle boy opted for airplanes.  In the airplane print there are also stars, so we went with that for the detail work.  Again using the Silhouette for the image, my five year old helped me paint the star on and picked out the colors for the embroidered circles surrounding it.

The little one’s has a transportation theme.  I found the truck image on the Silhouette software and traced it onto the shirt in chalk before embroidering it around the lower front and back of the shirt, wrapping around.  I also did a running stitch with the embroidery floss up the orange strip on the front, mimicking a road.

 

I’m crazy proud of them. 

When I showed the finished shirts to my boys, I told them, “Now tell me how awesome I am!” Because declaring it to myself over and over just was no longer enough.  I mean check out those plackets!

Homemade shirts FOR THE WIN!

If you want to see a basic overview of how I pieced the scraps and repurposed t-shirts together, click “read more” or this image of happy, well-dressed children running

Horizontal Pieced Works well when you have one larger scrap/t-shirt, and other smaller scraps. Start by laying your pattern piece out on the biggest piece of fabric/tee shirt After you’ve traced/cut out Slice the cut fabric into sections Use those sections to cut out the other fabrics, increasing for seam allowance on each side Keep cutting and replacing until you get the look you want  It helps to keep the existing hems, if you’re using a repurposed t-shirt, so you don’t have to bother with them later on. Then sew sections together

Pieced Fabric Best if you have all larger scraps/t-shirts Start by cutting your scraps and Ts into long strips Right sides together Sew the strips together Continue to do so until you have a large pieced fabric Use the pieced fabric as you would any other fabric

Vertical Pieced Pretty much just like the Horizontal, but let’s show it anyway Cut out the main fabric (I knew I only wanted the right half grey, so didn’t cut more than that) Line up another fabric And another, overlapping to allow for seam allowance Lay down the pattern piece Cut Sew all together

 

The end.

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