Jon found a jersey on ebay that was the same style as the one Jenn's dad wore to play. It had the team's name and logo on the front with a plain back. I made the letters and numbers and sewed them onto the back for the finished product pictured here.
I made the letters out of thick fusible interfacing and lining that would normally be used to line a dress. The lining was by far the closest match to the team name on the front for color and shine. It is a more flimsy material than the letters should be, but that is why I used the thick interfacing -- to make up for the thin lining.
To start, I traced the letters from the computer screen (we don't have a printer) from a font I downloaded at Abstract Fonts. The font matched the lettering on the players' jerseys very closely. The only difference was the curves, like in a "C" or "S" were softer on the actual jerseys. Not something a normal person would notice anyway. Just a crazy person like me. ;)
Next I cut out the characters from the tracing paper and traced them onto the interfacing. I cut those out and fused big squares of the red material onto the lettered interfacing. Since the red was such a thin fabric, it would have been nearly impossible to cut out the letters perfectly. But bonded to the interfacing, I was able to cut away the excess and ended up with a clean-cut letter (or number, as it were).
To make sure the name was in a straight line, I put masking tape along the lower line of where I wanted the letters. I put the tape on perpendicular to the pinstripes so that it would be straight. Then it was a simple matter to sew the letters into place. The pinstripes were a big help in making sure everything was straight up and down, especially for the numbers.
We framed the jersey with a picture of Jenn's dad to give to her.
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