A Sporting Chance
If it's round, human beings will find a way to make a game or sport with it. From early childhood, we revel in the chance to perform physical fetes, be it kicking, hitting, or rolling, with any spherical object. We'll practice for hours to achieve accuracy, speed, teamwork, or athletic grace.
Our love for competition never seems to wane, although later life often finds us more content to be observers, cheering for the athletic skills of the next generations.
Whether you engage in sports or find sports engaging, this week's designs will surely win you some gold medals for performance in sewing and embroidery. Family and friends will delight in shirtfronts for their favorite sport - from cycling to dance, volleyball and soccer to lawn bowling! Triumph in the textile arena with shirt sets for the sport-minded: football, basketball, softball, hockey, and bowling. You'll find triptychs depicting gymnastics, soccer, and triathlon events. These three-way scenes are perfect for shirts, totes, and sports bags, too. Picture your favorite baseball athlete or team in a new photo frame design. And, last but not least, with the applique numbers offered this week, you'll be ready to sew up a whole teamful of uniforms!
Soccer Soccer is a very old sport. Ball-kicking games were played by the Greeks and Romans, and, in ancient China a ball and net were used for skill building exercises. But the undisputed birthplace of modern soccer is England, where the rules for organized play evolved, and separated from Rugby. Today, soccer is popular on all five continents. It's the world's largest spectator sport, and that counts all the soccer parents at all the suburban little league games.
Comical soccer chicks team up with a header, a block, and a kick for a triptych design that makes a winning combination on sport bags or shirt fronts.
Perhaps it will never replace baseball in the U.S, but soccer has become a special spectator sport for millions of parents and grandparents throughout the U.S. as youngsters take to the fields every fall.
Although women's soccer teams began in Europe in the 1930s, in the U.S. it is relatively new as a varsity sport. It was already the 1970s before young girls joined park and rec teams and Title IV brought the sport to high schools and colleges. A national women's league was launched in 1995.
Football In the U.S., fall means football to 36 million spectators who attend collegiate games every year and millions more who gather around the TV to watch their favorite university and professional teams. The first varsity game was played in 1869 between Rutgers and Princeton. The first field was 120 yards long and 100 wide, and the first teams had 25 players each.
Make your Number One 'Coach' Potato a shirt for America's number one weekend pastime.
Football Shirt Set scores a touchdown! Shirt Set designs of all shapes and sizes are so versatile, you'll find lots of new places for them ─ sport bags, totes, stadium blankets, and more. The pack includes six designs: two collar tips, one button placket, pocket topper, feature, and a design that has been specially digitized for caps. Get all 6 designs for only $6.97! Click on the images or links below, and add the pack to your basket.
Click here for the 6X10 pack
Go for the goal, with right and left collar tips. The tiny designs also fit well on straps and flaps.
Available in one size: 0.76"X0.76"
Soaring through the air, this long pass will land perfectly on the button placket.
Clash your favorite rival colors on this cap design.
Available in one size: 1.01"X1.73"
Available in one size: 2.73"X2.00"
All the equipment for a football game teams up to top a shirt pocket.
Available in two sizes: 4.49"X1.70" and 3.51"X1.33"
Splitting the uprights, footballs, line markers, and megaphone form a feature design that literally cheers for the aficionados of this American game! Use this feature on the back yoke of a shirt. It will look great on the front of a sweatshirt, too.
Available in three sizes: 9.36"X4.24" and 6.79"X3.07" and 3.87"X1.75"
Play Ball Photo Frame The kids will be so proud when you display their team photo in this handsome frame! Looking for instructions for making photo frames? Click here.
Available in two sizes: 7.85"X6.10" and 6.35"X5.13"
Softball Shirt Set We doubt that there's a culture on earth that hasn't given birth to some form of a bat and ball game. They called it Rounders in 16th century Britain, where home base was the castle and runs were forays. When European immigrants brought the game to the New World, it became Townball, played between neighboring villages. With a larger ball than baseball, this form of the game went by various names, such as kitten ball, playground ball, army ball, mush ball, indoor-outdoor ball, and big ball, until 1926, when the YMCA settled it by calling it softball. The softball shirt set contains 6 designs, for the low price of $6.97! Click on the images or links below, and add the pack to your basket!
A collar tip with a "catch."
Available in one size: 0.78"X0.75"
Available in one size: 0.79"X0.76"
Placket design of bat and ball.
Cap design features the wearer's love for this game.
Available in one size: 0.81"X2.25"
Available in one size: 3.85"X1.79"
Top a shirt pocket with all the equipment for the next ball game.
Available in two sizes: 4.50"X1.98" and 3.51"X1.54"
Batter up! This clever feature design says it all. Perfect for the back yoke of a shirt, it'll also be a grand slam for sport bags and stadium totes.
Available in three sizes: 9.35"X4.10" and 6.78"X2.97" and 3.87"X1.69"
Basketball Shirt Sets Basketball was invented in the U.S. by a Canadian in 1891. James Naismith, YMCA director in Springfield, Massachusetts, created the game as an indoor activity to keep unruly youths busy during the winter months. He designed the sport to emphasize skill over strength, little realizing the heights players would grow to. The 6 basketball shirt set designs are available in a value pack. Get all 6 designs for only $6.97! Click on the images or links below, and add the pack to your basket!
Actual peach baskets suspended 10 feet high were basketball's first "hoops." These little baskets are just the right size for collar tips, but they're small enough to go anywhere
Available in one size: 0.86"X0.86"
Dribble this ball onto a shirt placket.
A dazzling display to emblazon on a cap!
Available in one size: 1.01"X2.20"
Available in one size: 2.86"X2.03"
Top a pocket with whistle, ball, shoes, and game plan.
Available in two sizes: 4.50"X2.00" and 3.52"X1.56"
The word 'basketball' is spelled out with whistles, and also includes a bouncing ball and hoop. Perfect for a shirt front or back, and equally fine on totes and sport bags.
Ice Hockey Was it Irish hurley, a Nova Scotia Mi'kmac ice game, American Indian lacrosse, English field hockey? The pedigree is unclear. Whatever its origins, the game we know as ice hockey grew up as a Canadian invention and spread throughout the world. The British Navy gets kudos for bringing it to Australia before 1900, where its popularity at private girls schools gave birth to the Australian Women's Hockey Association in 1910. The Winter Olympics added the competition in 1920. The 6 hockey shirt set designs are available in a value pack. Get all 6 designs for only $6.97! Click on the images or links below, and add the pack to your basket!
Available in one size: 0.91"X0.90"
Hockey stick and puck will face off nicely down the placket of a shirt.
Victory is yours when you "cap it off" this way!
Available in one size: 1.02"X2.25"
Available in one size: 2.47"X2.03"
Skate your way to the rink with this design atop your pocket.
Available in two sizes: 4.51"X1.49" and 3.51"X1.17"
This feature design, in the colors of a favorite team is a real power play! It fits nicely on a shirt yoke or t-shirt front. And makes a strong showing on totes and bags.
Available in three sizes: 8.10"X5.85" and 6.70"X4.85" and 3.87"X2.81"
Bowling Artifacts found in Egyptian tombs reveal games like skittles or bowling was played 5,000 years ago. Around the world (Bocce in Italian, Bolla in Saxon, Bolle in Danish, Boules in French, and Ula Miaka in Polynesian) some form of this game has been the sport of the people. Even a ban by King Henry VIII couldn't extinguish people's love for this competition. And so it lives on in the hearts of more than 100 million people in 90 countries who universally love the game. The 6 bowling designs are available in a value pack. Get all 6 designs for only $6.97! Click on the images or links below, and add the pack to your basket!
A friendly pin tips a collar.
Here's a split─the other collar tip.
Available in one size: 0.64"X0.63"
Sew this speedy ball down a placket lane.
Happy bowling pins on a cap predict a good game.
Available in one size: 1.00"X1.66"
Available in one size: 3.83"X1.97"
When you've thrown a gutter ball, this little cartoon perched on your pocket, will offer a little comedy relief!
Available in two sizes: 4.50"X1.81" and 3.51"X1.41"
A shirt with this feature design on the back is a great conversation piece, and it can't help but put a positive spin on the scoring.
Available in three sizes: 8.89"X5.85" and 6.79"X4.47" and 3.86"X2.56"
Bowling Shirt Set Perfect designs for the bowling team who wants to be stylish while delivering the ball. Embellish a shirt front and back, collar tip to tip, and pocket to placket. The 6 bowling designs are available in a value pack. Get all 6 designs for only $6.97! Click on the images or link belows, and add the pack to your basket!
Tiny designs will embellish strapping and ribbon.
Available in one size: 0.77"X0.74"
Pins and ball line up for a placket.
A "strike-ing" design for a cap.
Available in one size: 0.70"X2.25"
Available in one size: 3.84"X1.92"
What could be more grand for a pocket topper? You're sure to get a little pin action with this design.
Available in two sizes: 4.51"X 2.23" and 3.51"X1.74"
Dare we say, this feature design is "right up your alley" when it comes to embellishing items for bowling fans. Embroider it on the back yoke of a shirt, the flap of a sports bag, or a snack tote.
Available in three sizes: 9.37"X5.69" and 6.79"X4.12" and 3.86"X2.35"
Cycling The Tour de France may put cycle racing on the evening news, but millions of people are hitting the trails on their bikes every weekend in their cities and counties. Nationally and internationally, biking is becoming one of the biggest outdoor recreations for people of all ages. With thousands of railway beds undergoing conversion to scenic pathways, Americans are falling in love with cycling. Express that devotion on a shirt front or back, or add a touch of embroidery to a bike bag accessory.
Triathlon Hats off to those who would test their skill and stamina for a try at triathlon events. Although multiple event competition began in 1904 in Olympic track events, the first multi-sport event in the U.S. didn't occur until the 1972 in San Diego, and the most famous, the Iron Man Triathlon in Hawaii in 1977.
Women in Triathlon competition The first woman to master the Iron Man Triathlon was Lyn Lemaire in 1979. From 1986 to 1996, Paula Newby-Fraser won the women's event eight times. In 2000, the triathlon became an Olympic medal sport in the games in Sydney, Australia.
Dance Almost every little girl dreams of becoming a dancer. Dance demands as much or more athleticism than many another sport. And, in recent years, precision dancing has stepped off the ballet stage and onto the playing field to bring its own special blend of dance routines to athletic events.
Gymnastics is an ancient practice that tests strength, balance, flexibility and coordination. In the first Olympics of 1896, it was a men's-only competition; women were allowed to compete in 1928. Today, from the balance beam to parallel bars, jumps, and floor exercise, women make it a graceful art.
Volleyball It's more than 100 years old, and it took awhile, but volleyball almost tops the rankings for participation sports. Created by a YMCA instructor as a game for businessmen in 1895, this sport blends elements of basketball, tennis, handball. Worldwide, 800 million people play volleyball every week, so chances are, you know one of them. On shirt front or back, on tote or towel, this design is sure to please!
Lawn Bowling Bowls, Bocce, Bowling on the Green are all akin to lawn bowling. The famous bowling green in New York's Central Park has many predecessors. Brought to America by English colonists, lawn bowling was a very popular game in the 1600s. Fading for centuries after the Revolutionary War, the game was revived in the early 1900s by Scottish immigrants. Today both women and men are enjoying the game.
Want to see more? Click here to see designs released in previous weeks!