Behind the Design · 4 min read · July 29, 2026
The Story Behind Our Sailboat Patchwork Tee
A little hand-appliquéd sailboat — polka-dot and floral sails, a red gingham hull — stitched one at a time on Nantucket onto a soft white cotton tee.
If you grow up around a harbor, you draw the same boat your whole life: two triangles and a half circle. It's the first thing a child sketches in the margin of a notebook, the shape carved into the shutters of half the cottages on the island, the outline you see a hundred times a day from the Steamship dock. The Sailboat Patchwork Tee started as that drawing — cut out of fabric scraps on the kitchen table and hand-stitched onto a plain white cotton tee, just to see if the feeling would translate. It did.
The Idea — The First Boat You Ever Drew
I wanted a sailboat that looked handmade rather than branded. Not a printed logo, not an embroidered crest — a little boat that looks like it was cut from a grandmother's scrap basket and stitched on by somebody who had all afternoon. So the sails came out of two different fabrics on purpose: one a sky-blue polka dot, one a soft aqua floral, because real sails never match once the sun has worked on them for a season. The hull is red gingham, the same gingham you'd find on a picnic blanket at Jetties. Put together, it reads as a boat from across the room and as a quilt up close.
How It's Made — Cut Freehand, Stitched by Hand
Every tee is made to order on Nantucket. I start with a soft 100% cotton tee with a relaxed drape — the kind that knots at the waist without bunching. Each sail is cut freehand, turned under, and appliquéd down with a small running stitch in ivory thread. The hull is a half circle cut from vintage gingham, stitched last so the boat looks like it's sitting in the water rather than floating above it. Nothing is fused, nothing is printed, nothing is machine-embroidered — which is why no two boats sit at exactly the same angle, and why I like them better that way.
Why It Costs $78 — And Why We Make Them in Small Batches
A printed sailboat tee costs $18 because a machine makes two hundred an hour. This one costs $78 because one pair of hands makes one at a time. The blank itself is a premium cotton tee, the fabrics are sourced in small lots — estate sales on the island, a fabric shop in Hyannis I've been going to for years — and the hand-stitching is the part that can't be scaled. I make these in batches of ten. When a batch sells out, the next one takes about two weeks, so order ahead if you have a boat day, a beach weekend, or a birthday in mind.
How to Wear It
Knotted at the waist over white denim with a straw hat is the way I wear it most — off the morning ferry, through a walk down Main Street, and straight onto a porch at five o'clock. It also works tucked into a linen skirt with flat sandals, thrown over a bathing suit on the way back from Steps Beach, or with jeans and pearl studs for a casual dinner. The palette is soft — sky blue, aqua, and one warm red — so it plays quietly with everything already in a coastal closet.
Part of the Nantucket Charm Originals
This is the second shirt in the Nantucket Charm Originals — the small collection of pieces we design and sew ourselves, alongside the curated finds we love from other makers. A handful of pieces a year, each one made by hand on the island, each one built to come out of the closet every June like an old friend. Join the list at the bottom of the page and you'll be first to know when the next batch drops.
Every Sailboat Patchwork Tee is cut and stitched by hand on Nantucket in small batches of ten. Sizes XS–XL, $78, made to order — if you'd like one for a boat day or a beach weekend, order now and I'll get yours in the mail before you need it.
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