She's Crafty - Captain America sweatshirt

Super awesome floral Captain America shield sweatshirt -- the perfect snow day craft project!



Tehnakki typically spends her days in Boston being an awesome rocket scientist. (OK, technically she's a satellite engineer, but 'rocket scientist' sounds way cooler. And eviler.) When she's not doing science, she's playing games, creating awesome cosplay, and following other awesomely nerdly pursuits.

But folks in Boston and other parts of New England have been effectively snowed in for days now. So, what's a home-bound nerd girl going to do with all that free time? Sew, of course!

I really love florals. I was browsing the Joanns Fabrics website (as you do) looking at what floral fabric was on sale when I came across this wonderfully tacky Hibiscus flower fabric and new I HAD to get some to make a non-compliant sweatshirt. Of course, you can't just purchase 1-yd of fabric off the website (the shipping's ridiculous) so I tried brainstorming other simple shapes I could cut out of floral fabric and my mind immediately went to Captain America's shield since it's relatively simple (4 circles and a star) but very iconic.

I just love these colors together! So spring-like!

It was about 2 hours of work to make. I eye-balled a 5" star on the white n' blue fabric, cut that out, placed it on the blue fabric and cut a circle that inscribed the star, and then cut three more circles of increasing diameter. A half yard of fabric would have been sufficient for the red, and less for the other two fabrics. 

To make sure the edges of the star stayed crisp (because cotton has a habit of fraying when appliqueing) I applied hot bond paper to the tips of all the star points and ironed it to the blue circle before appliqueing. If I had a serger I would have used that for all the edges, but alas I do not so I used the zigzag stitch on a short stitch length and large width.

I ordered a 2 pack of men's Hanes sweatshirts which were comfy but awkwardly large through the sleeves so I cut them done and tailored them to fit me better. Once the sweatshirt fit, I pinned the shield to the front, checked placement in the mirror and the sewed it on using the zigzag stitch. Easy peasy!"

And super cute! I'm sure both Peggy Carter and Steve Rogers would approve! For more info on how she did it, check out her fantastic instructions [PDF].