Behind the Design · 5 min read · July 29, 2026
The Story Behind Our Hydrangea & Poppy Flag Tee
How a hand-appliquéd flag tee — stitched on Nantucket from vintage lace, hydrangea-blue cotton, and a single poppy-red star — became the first shirt in the Nantucket Charm Originals collection.
Every piece in the Nantucket Charm Originals collection begins the same way — on the kitchen table of a shingled cottage, with a cup of coffee going cold and a pile of fabric scraps that shouldn't go together, but somehow do. The Hydrangea & Poppy Flag Tee started on a rainy Sunday in June. I had a plain white cotton tee, a length of antique cotton lace I'd been saving for something worth saving it for, a scrap of hydrangea-blue linen from an old pillow cover, and a single poppy-red star cut from a piece of vintage bandana. Four hours later, the first one was finished — and by the time I wore it down Main Street the next morning, three people had stopped me to ask where it came from. This is the story of how it's made, why it costs what it costs, and why we're only making a handful of them.
The Idea — A Flag That Belongs on Nantucket
I have always loved the American flag on Nantucket. The island has a way of making patriotism feel personal — the linen bunting on the Jetties Beach lifeguard stand, the small flags planted in window boxes on Fair Street for the Fourth, the enormous flag that snaps in the wind over the Whaling Museum. But most flag apparel is loud. It shouts. I wanted a flag tee that whispered — one that looked like it could have been sewn by a grandmother in 1962, hemmed by hand, and pulled out of a cedar chest every summer. So instead of stars and stripes printed on cotton, I built the flag out of textures I already loved: hydrangea-blue in place of navy, antique lace in place of white stripes, and one hand-cut poppy-red star instead of fifty.
How It's Made — Four Hours on the Kitchen Table
Every tee is made-to-order on Nantucket. I start with a premium 100% combed cotton crew — soft enough to sleep in, structured enough to hold a shape after a hundred washes. The hydrangea-blue field is cut from washed European linen and turned under by hand. The stripes are strips of antique cotton lace, each one slightly different from the last because that is the nature of vintage lace — no two flags will ever be identical. The star is cut freehand from poppy-red cotton, appliquéd on with a tiny running stitch in ivory thread. Nothing is fused, nothing is printed, nothing is machine-embroidered. The whole flag is stitched down by hand, which is why one tee takes about four hours to finish.
Why It Costs $78 — And Why We're Only Making a Few
A screen-printed flag tee costs $18 because a machine prints two hundred of them an hour. This one costs $78 because one pair of hands makes one of them in an afternoon. The cotton tee itself is a $22 premium blank. The European linen and antique lace are sourced in small lots — sometimes from estate sales on the island, sometimes from a fabric shop in Hyannis I've been going to for years. And the four hours of hand-stitching is the part that can't be scaled. I'm making these in small batches of ten at a time, and when a batch sells out, the next one takes about two weeks. If you want one for the Fourth of July, order by mid-June. If you want one for Labor Day, order by early August.
How to Wear It
The tee was designed to be worn the way you'd wear a favorite old sweatshirt — with jeans that are already broken in, with a linen skirt on the porch, tucked into white shorts with Jack Rogers, or knotted at the waist over a bathing suit on the way back from Steps Beach. Because the palette is soft — hydrangea-blue instead of navy, cream lace instead of bright white, one small red accent — it plays quietly with the rest of a coastal wardrobe. I've worn mine with a straw tote, with pearl studs to dinner at the Club Car, and with bare feet and a coffee on the front step. It works for all of it.
The Story We're Building
This tee is the first piece in the Nantucket Charm Originals — a small collection of things we're designing and making ourselves, in addition to the curated pieces we love from other makers. The idea is simple: a handful of pieces a year, each one made by hand on the island, each one built to last a decade in a cedar closet and come out every June like an old friend. If you'd like to be first to know when the next batch drops — an ivory bow headband, a hydrangea-embroidered linen napkin, a monogrammed beach cover-up — join the list at the bottom of the page. And thank you, truly, for being the reason we get to make these at all.
Every tee is stitched by hand on Nantucket, in small batches of ten. When this batch sells out, the next one takes about two weeks — so if you have a July Fourth party, an August dinner on the porch, or a Labor Day weekend in mind, order now and I'll get yours in the mail before you need it.
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