The upgrade of classic Polo

Hello everyone! Welcome back!!

A little storytelling that always comes in handy ;)

It was my friend Estefi's birthday, and after giving her a slightly revealing crochet dress last year... this year I decided to make her something she could wear every day and also to work.

I had been gathering inspiration for a while from a type of crochet polo shirt that I couldn't get out of my head. I combined it with a familiar stitch, and BOOM, we have a new pattern that's cute, easy, and above all, wearable....

I also took inspiration from some photos of her wearing this type of sleeveless polo shirt and went for the classic and reliable color black.

Regarding the pattern itself, I can say that it can be completely customized to the desired fit, its made to measure. In my case, I made a loose-fitting size S or a snug-fitting size M. Keep in mind that I have a 90 cm bust and I am 1.74 cm tall. It reaches just on top of my belly button. I made it this way to wear with high-waisted pants.

My friend, who is 1.70 m tall and slimmer, will find it fits like a loose S.

I also recommend doing a tension test with the stitch indicated below.

The final measurements of my polo shirt are 220 g weight - Height 40.5 cm - Width 40 cm.

Other references:

• Elastic waistband 9.5 cm long

• Collar 4.5 cm long

• Neckline is located 22 cm from the base of the polo shirt

• Seam 23 cm on each side.

In my case, the tension test was 10 cm = 20 stitches wide X 10 cm = 10 stitches high.

Let's move on to the pattern...

Materials:

• 200 gr of100% Egyptian cotton nª8 black- yarn 70 gr for 420 mts (doble thread)

• 20 gr of100% Egyptian cotton nº5 white - yarn 70 gr for 290 mts (doble thread)

• Hook 2.5 mm

• Knitting needle (to sew)

• Scissors

• Markers

Abbreviations:

Pattern:

For any size you wish to do, remember: Always knit an odd number of stitches.

Front:

1. 76 ch + 3 ch

2. 77 dc

3. 3 ch - Leave 1 space - 2 dc in same stitch* repeat sequence ** to end. Finish with 1 dc and turn work.

4. 3 ch - 1 pdc in each fan of the previous round. Finish with 1 dc and turn your work.

5. Repeat point 4 for 14 rounds (approx. 22 cm).

Graphic 1

1. Here we will separate our work in 2 - leaving 4 pair of dc in the middle.

2. Starting on the right side, without decreasing or increasing, crochet 3 ch + 15 pdc+ 1 dc. Turn the work.

3. Continue this sequence for 10 rounds.

Graphic 2

1. I begin to decrease to form the neckline as follows: 3 ch + 14 pdc and in the last pdc of the previous round, place1 dc. Turn your work.

2. 3 ch + 13 pdc+ 1 dc. I continue this sequence until I am left with only 10 pdc.

Graphic 3

1. Last round with single crochet. I fasten off and cut the yarn.

2. I repeat the sequence from step 7 but on the left side.

Back:

1. 76 ch + 3 ch

2. 77 dc

3. 3 ch - Leave 1 space - 2 dc in same stitch* repeat sequence ** to end. Finish with 1 dc and turn work.

4. 3 ch - 1 pdc in each fan of the previous round. Finish with 1 dc and turn your work.

5. Repeat point 4 for 34 rounds (match the total length of the front)

6. I finish with 1 round of single crochet, fasten off, and cut the yarn.

Graphic1

Sew the front and back on both sides, leaving space for the sleeves. In my case, I left 23 stitches unsewn.

Elastic Bottom:

With our work sewn together, we are going to turn it upside down and hook the thread at the base of our work to crochet the "elastic". We are going to crochet it with our polo shirt upside down.

We will do the first row entirely in "elastic" stitch, turning the entire contour.

Once the first row is finished, we will crochet10 rows of "elastic" stitch, alternating between picking up the stitch from the front and from the back. See the photo and diagram below for a better understanding.

Graphic 4

I close with 2 rounds of single crochet stitches, picking up the back loop. This prevents the loose effect that occurs when we finish the previous 10 rounds.

Neckline:

We will crochet them separately and then sew them together. I will repeat the instructions below twice.

1. 11 ch

2. Starting from the third chain from your needle, crochet 9 half double crochets. Total of 10 hdc.

3. Crochet 2cn + 9 hdc. Repeat for 9 rows. Close and cut the thread.

4. Repeat steps 1, 2, and 3 to obtain the second piece of the neckline.

Now we are going to sew both pieces together in the space we left at the front. I crochet one piece on each side of the polo shirt and the bottom part, then sew them together, overlapping one on top of the other. See photo below.

Neck:

Looking at the front of my polo shirt, where I had previously started the decreases and where we will find our neckline sewn from the previous row, we are going to hook our thread and crochet single crochet stitches all around our neck, passing through the back and returning to the other front. Turn the work.

We will work back and forth along the edge, turning the work. We start with 2 ch and continue with hdc along the back strand. We repeat this sequence for a total of 7 rounds. I finish with 1 round of single crochet all around, including the width of the neck.

Sleeves:

Simply work a row of slip stitches around the entire edge of the arm openings to give a better finish.

Extra Tip: If you don't like leaving it as a tank top or sleeveless shirt, you can add polo-style sleeves or even long sleeves. What I would do in that case is use the initial pattern for the body and replicate it on the sleeves (graphic 1). That way, we stick with the original design. Finally, you can make the cuffs by following the pattern for the elastic hem—one stitch graving from front and one stitch graving from the back.

Detail: White Thread Stitching

The detail of this polo shirt is the white thread that highlights its edges and collar.

For the bottom, the edge of the sleeves, and the collar, we are simply going to make “chains” but going in between the stitches of the edge. See photo for a better understanding.

For the neckline, we will make 3 strips imitating the pattern left by the hdc itself when crochet through the back loop. Imitating the horizontal “V” shapes. See photo below.

We are done!!

I really like this pattern because it can be dressy or super casual... it depends on how you combine it! ;) I'll leave it to your imagination!

Thank you for being here!

Please, if you do it and post it, tag me at @galebbydai on Instagram.

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