Now that Christmas is over, we can get back to serious business: college football. I am an Oklahoma Sooner, was born to 2 Sooners who met in the dorms in the 70s (located on Lindsey St…), and married another Sooner. So as the song goes, “I’m Sooner born, I’m Sooner bred, and when I die, I’ll be Sooner dead.”

I love college football every year, but it most certainly is more fun when your team wins squeaks by as closely as physically possible and makes it to the playoffs by the skin on their teeth.

Reasons to root for OU:

1. You always have to root for the underdog!

2. Alabama is old news. We get it: they’re great. Whatever. Aren’t they running out of fingers to put rings on?

3. I can’t root for a team with that many baton twirlers. It just isn’t right. Don’t get me wrong: I love a flaming baton as much as the next guy. But they have no less than 25 girls wielding batons, which I think is referred to as a legion, and PS. I’ve never even seen them all twirl. Do they just recruit pretty girls to hold metal sticks? I have my suspicions.

So now that you’re convinced, here’s a cute idea to whip up OU apparel in time for the big game on Saturday. It can, of course, be tailored to root for any team. Except Alabama.

You’ll Need:

• 2 sheets felt in colors of choice (one for pennant, one for letters and edging)

• pins or temporary spray adhesive

• Sweater (mine is from Goodwill, doi)

• Sewing machine, thread in colors of felt

Instructions:

1. Design and print pennant in desired size. I made mine in PowerPoint with letters in individual text boxes in descending font size. If you want to use or edit my file, here it is: OU Pennant

2. Trim around pennant shape in main pennant color (for me, this was crimson).

3. Cut rectangle in accent color (for me, cream) that is the same height as the pennant and ~1” wide. Fold in half hot dog style, wrap around vertical end of pennant triangle, and place one straight seam through all 3 layers of felt (both sides of accent hot dog and pennant).

4. Cut 2 rectangles, approx. 4” long and 1/4” wide. Fold into ‘V’ shape. Pin each to back of pennant in desired location (one on top, one on bottom) and stitch over previous stitch line where ‘V’ is located to attach.

5. Attach printed pennant (with letters) to accent color felt with right-side up. Cut out letters.

   I used temporary spray adhesive and it worked really well, but you could pin very thoroughly. If you pin, put the pins inside the letters and do enough to prevent pulling or wiggling of fabric. This will be easier on bigger letters and tougher on smaller ones. An alternate method would be to use stencils to trace letters on felt and the cut out.

   Peel printer paper off front of letters.

6. Place letters on pennant to ensure fit, and then carefully stitch on one at a time. If this doesn’t sound your speed, you could iron Wonder Under (2-sided iron-on material) to the back side of your accent felt color prior to step 5 and then simply iron each letter on after cutting them out.

7. Put sweater on and pin pennant in place. Remove from body. Sew pennant to sweater.

8. Yell ‘BOOMER SOONER’ maniacally and incessantly.

NOTE: This took a bit of patience and time- if you have a Cricut or Silhouette machine and some iron-on transfers, this would immediately become MUCH easier and would probably look more professional with no sewing required.

Overview

Total time: 2 hours

Total cost: $7

• $5 sweater

• <$2 felt

• Had everything else on hand

Efficacy: I’ll let you know after Dec 29th.