Oregon Coast DIY Sweatshirt

Sigh. You guys. Last September, my husband and I went on an Anniversary trip to the Oregon Coast. I had never been to Oregon, and oh my goodness! I want to go back! So much so that I’ve been trying to figure out how we can afford to take our entire family back this summer! It’s like my soul yearns for that place. Which is interesting since I’ve only been there once. Maybe it is because it was so relaxing for me to be there, and I hadn’t been that relaxed in a LONG time and haven’t been since then either. Anyway, I’m hoping we can figure out how to take a family trip back there. While we were there, I looked and looked for a hooded sweatshirt that I could buy that I liked. There wasn’t any that I completely fell in love with and being the creative person that I am just kept thinking that I could make one. SO, when I got home from our vacation, I designed what I wanted on a hoodie, and I finally got one and made myself this Oregon Coast DIY Sweatshirt. I want to wear it all the time, just so I can think about our vacation (although I think about it plenty without the sweatshirt on as well!). If you follow me over on Instagram, then you may have already seen this when I shared it for Tutorial Tuesday. If you didn’t catch that, then you can check out the video tutorial in my saved stories. I’m hoping to share a tutorial each Tuesday over on Instagram, so be sure that you’re following along there.

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Visiting the Oregon Coast

Before I get into the tutorial I thought I would share some pretty pictures from our trip! I just had my cell phone with me and I’m so glad that it takes pretty good pictures! I’m planning to frame some of them to put up in my home. This is a picture of the Columbia River from Astoria.

I was so intrigued by the bridges EVERYWHERE. There are so many different kinds of bridges that all all different and SO cool! This is the bridge that stretches across the Columbia River from Astoria to Washington State.

This is the beach in Seaside. The tide was pretty low when we were there and we found a star fish along with several sand dollars. Most of the sand dollars were broken though.

Cannon Beach! We went when the tide was low so we could look in the tide pools. That was so fun. We were lucky to only have one day of rain while we were there. We also went into a glass blowing shop and watched a vase be made. So awesome!

This is Ecola Point looking towards Cannon Beach. This is the point between Seaside and Cannon Beach. It was beautiful!

Anyway, back to reality, right?! I decided that I wanted to create a sweatshirt that had all of the locations we visited on it. So my design is pretty specific to me, but I LOVE it!

Oregon Coast DIY Sweatshirt Supplies:

Cricut Maker
Cricut EasyPress
Cricut EasyPress Mat
Heat Transfer Vinyl (for this project, I used Stretch HTV Coral)
Weeding Tools
Sweatshirt

For this project, I designed the cut file, right in Design Space, using fonts from my computer. Sometimes I design in Photoshop Elements and upload the design, and sometimes I just design in Design Space.

Once I had my design ready to be cut, I placed the HTV onto my mat. Cutting heat transfer vinyl is so fun, and the possibilities are endless.

Making sure my design was mirrored, I sent it to be cut on the Cricut Maker.

After it was cut, I trimmed my heat transfer vinyl to be just around the design that had been cut, saving the rest of the sheet of HTV. I started weeding by pulling the larger piece off.

Then I grabbed the weeding hook to get inside the letters that needed it.

I folded the design in half (with the front, non sticky sides touching) to find the center of the design, then placed it on the sweat shirt where it needed to be.

Using the large EasyPress Mat & EasyPress 2, I pressed the design. I also pressed the back. I looked at the EasyPress Interactive Quick Reference Guide to know what heat settings to use. Once it was pressed, I peeled off the carrier sheet.

Then my Oregon Coast DIY Sweatshirt was done!

I basically just want to wear this every single day to remind myself of my love for the Oregon Coast! It was all so green and beautiful and I just want to be there!