DIY Style: Varsity Letter Sweatshirt with the Cricut Mini

I'm a little nervous - this is my first ever style post! I'd like to make these a regular part of the blog, with a focus on incorporating DIY elements. Hope you guys like it!

Jacket: Levi's. Shirt: J. Crew. Sweatshirt: American Apparel (but there are MUCH cheaper options out there). Bag: Loeffler Randall (old). Sunglasses: Oliver Peoples. Shoes: Sam Edelman (old; similar here). Pants: YSL (best sample sale find ever!)

I had the pleasure of meeting the very kind team over at Cricut at the Maker Faire this fall (otherwise known as crafter's utopia). They were nice enough to send me a Cricut Mini to try out!

I have to confess: in the past, I totally associated Cricuts with scrapbooking or children's crafts, which is to say I wasn't thinking nearly creatively enough! After I saw what the Cricut Mini could do at the Faire, tons of DIY ideas popped into my mind. When I realized it could cut fabric (!!!), the possibilities seemed endless.

For this DIY, I was inspired by the recent varsity letter trend.

1. Atlantic-Pacific. 2. Style with Benefits 3. ASOS

Here's the how-to:

Materials
Cricut Mini + Varsity font
Sweatshirt (I used one I had on hand, but like I said, there are tons of below $10 options out there. If you want a more fitted look, try a youth size).
Fabric for letter in color of choice
Sewing machine + thread if you're sewing
Heat 'n Bond + iron if you're not sewing

Steps
1. Create the letter of your choice in Cricut Craft Room on your computer - I sized mine to be 5 in. tall.
2. Heavily starch & iron pre-washed fabric for the letter.
3. Stick letter fabric onto cutting mat - press down REALLY hard! If you're ironing, use the Cricut to cut the same shape out of the Heat 'n Bond.
4. Set Cricut pressure to 5 and number of cuts to 3.
5. Optional: If you're ironing rather than sewing, definitely use Fray Check on the edges of your letter to prevent any fraying. I sewed but used Fray Check anyway to make it easier to handle my letter without worrying about fraying.
6. Sew: Sew your letter to your sweatshirt using a wide, tight zigzag stitch. I went over mine twice to make it extra thick.
or
Iron: Carefully align your Heat 'n Bond letter with your fabric letter and position on sweatshirt. Affix letter to sweatshirt using Heat 'n Bond instructions.

7. Put on your new varsity letter sweatshirt!

The shot below represents the very first time I'd EVER used a Cricut. It was super easy to set up - the directions are very straightforward, and it hooked up to my Mac without issue.

You can see above on my test letter that my first attempt didn't go so smoothly! I didn't press hard when affixing the fabric to the sticky cutting mat, and I hadn't heavily starched the fabric.

My next attempt went MUCH more smoothly - here's the actual letter I used: