« Varsity Style DIY »
Friday, October 12, 2012 
My personal style is all over the place all of the time. More often than not I'm sitting here in my office in front of my computer screen by myself. Fashion and appearance doesn't exactly come into play then, but I've decided to try and make an effort and dress nicely. That includes putting some steps other than brush my teeth and wash my face into the daily beauty routine. (I just made myself giggle as I'm wearing pajama pants as I type this. I will start to make an effort tomorrow.)
Moving on, this past weekend it was cold here in Oklahoma. I don't know what technically passes for cold in other states but it was wet and in the 40s and 50s. Now, for those of you who don't think that is cold, I'll tell you that tomorrow our high is scheduled at 81. When you go from 81 to 41 that is freakin' cold! But I digress.
The cold weather kind of, sort of crept up on me. All of my cold weather clothes are in the garage. In boxes. Which are under who knows what. Who knows where. So I bought a cheapie sweatshirt from the store in charcoal grey to tide me over until I can dig around out there. But unfortunately my new warm apparel was so, so plain! And I'm getting back into my preppy phase so we can't be looking like we have on cheapie sweats (even if the are!)
A little bit of felt and a super cute font later and I had a new and wholly personalized sweatshirt to kick around town in! In the varsity style it says A because I'm A! All you will need to make your own is:
- Item of clothing
- Felt in two colors
- Scissors
- Freezer paper
- Embroidery thread slightly different in color from top letter
- Needle
- Fabric glue
- Printed letter (get the font here)
Print your 2 of your letter that are the exact same size. Glue onto the non-waxy side of freezer paper.
Place the waxy side down and iron your letter onto felt and iron on, taking care to work quickly. Put a bit of heat and see if it is adhering - when working with felt it really won't take much. Do this for both of your felt colors.
FYI - I've been asked how I can get such neat cutouts when working with felt and this is my trick!
Now, I got confused when I cut my first letter, so use the guide above to help determine which lines to follow to cut. I know it seems silly but I really messed mine up and I'm still not sure how...
Use very sharp scissors and cut as many of the straight lines in a single snip if possible. Go behind and trim up any stray fibers or strange looking areas. Peel the freezer paper off when finished.
Take your embroidery floss and stitch the top letter to the bottom. If you go in the hole that you recently came out of you will get really nice, clean lines. Follow along the edge of the letter, keeping the distance from the edge as uniform as possible.
Use your fabric glue to adhere the letter to your shirt or pants. You may want to don the piece and pin the felt exactly where you want it to go. I didn't and mine is right over my left boob and it's kind of awkward looking.
If you prefer you can always stitch it to the shirt instead of glue. I didn't because I was worried that too many stitches would busy the letter up, but to each his own!
Allow the glue to cure prior to washing your item, but other than that, you are done! To mix things up a bit, you can use your team's acronym on a hoodie in the school colors, the initials for your S.O. (significant other) on the derriere of some sweatpants, the year you graduated high school on a sweater, any number or letter or combination that means something to you on any piece of clothing you wish! Now, get back out there and work for the weekend. (or keep browsing around!)
Reader Comments (4)
Love the look of varsity sweaters. Great tutorial!
Thanks, Kate!
Thanks . The font is perfect. Our Kids school is doing a fundraiser thats a Sock Hop. Hope to use this DIY for costumes
You are welcome, Shane - so glad that it'll help with your Hop!