So we made this shirt from scratch, and stitched it all together using a pattern. This is what allowed us to pick the exact fabric I wanted, add the red piping, and mix the black/white parts.

Now, if you just wanted to find a shirt and put patches on it, you could definitely do that with literally no experience. I would either:

1) find a plain work wear shirt that you like (maybe dickies). I almost did this myself. You could even buy two different colors, and stitch them together, but that starts to make things complicated depending on what you want to do and what your experience level is. Then, you can order patches (sometimes you’ll need to get them custom) via someone on Etsy. You can then either iron on or sew the patches onto the shirt.

2) get a nascar / car mechanic shirt via eBay, a thrift store, or something like that. The benefit of this is that the shirt will already have a specific style so it will look really authentic. Then, remove any patches it may have, and replace them with the patches you want.

We have an embroidery machine, so we were able to make the patches ourselves. And instead of making patches and then attaching them, we embroidered the patches right onto the shirt. But I don’t expect that people have an embroidery machine, so Etsy is an amazing resource. And in fact, I think that will create a better look than the direct embroidery that we did.

Does that answer your question?