Tshirts: I have ladybugs in various neon colors, Lightning McQueen letters (COS I LOVE HIM AND the Disney/Pixar film "Cars"), Minnie Mouse letters, Music notes, blue moon and stars, green with red ladybugs, Hello Kitty in pink gingham, etc.

But my jerseys (which are a very "official" thing for most chapters on my campus) are only in: your colors
(although my chapter uses navy blue as the top letter color cos white and pink are hard to see together. However, I do have a pink and white jersey because I'm a purist!), family colors (family jersey), Boyfriend/Big Brother colors (if you are THAT close with someone in a fraternity).

If I saw someone wearing a jersey in my official colors (ex. an ABC in a Pink and White jersey or a white/pink jersey with a pink & white paisley or something) it would be a very tense moment.

But, If it was a white jersey with a pink, white, and grey/brown/green pattern or a blue jersey with pink and white letters than whatever...

But sweatshirts, tshirts, jackets, bags, laptop carriers, dog carriers, dog sweaters, door cozies, lettered doiles, makeup bags, whatver else you can come up with, do whatever! I mean what can you really do about it? Colors are fun!

I have a green t-shirt with magenta Alpha Phi Omega letters and a magenta t-shirt with blue and gold letters. Both letters in both shirts have patterns. I was never dissuaded or discouraged from wearing them.

Families?
 

I've heard a lot about getting letters in patterns or colors that match for your littles so your "family" shares a common theme. Is this a relatively new thing?
I have a photo of me and my big and her big...etc. going up to 5 of us but other than that, I had never heard of "families" within a chapter before. It seems like it's being discussed in general more now than ever before. It's been 20 years since I was in college. Any other "oldsters" have any perspective on this?

Anyway, on my campus everyone wore whatever colors they wanted to. I love my sorority's colors, but there's only so much green I can take. The only thing I have left is a heather grey sweatshirt with pink letters on a white background.

NPC sorority members at my school would pretty much pick out and wear whatever colors they wanted. It would be considered bad form to wear your letters in another org's solid colors, but if other orgs' colors happened to appear in a pattern, that was fine. I only ever had two lettered items in green and white, and they were a screenprinted sweatshirt and a bar hat... my favorite colors are blues, purples, and black, and most of my letters reflect that.

Because I'm in a local, and we were refounded in 1988, we all go back to one of five founding member trees. Each of the trees has a sort of "theme" or even a very specific pattern that they use...it's a way to keep everyone straight! Some girls are in 2 or 3 different trees, so it can be confusing. Don't know how this would work in a national organization, unless you went back to chapter founder trees?

One of my Chi O daughters had a family who all had bumblebee letters for their sewn shirts. Really cute!

Which is easy when your chapter's a few decades old or less, but go back much further than that and your screwed :p Even 20 years would be nearly impossible without having intended to do so in the first place. And that's assuming meticulous record keeping. I'm quite impressed!

So, BabyPink FL...just curious...a jersey is not a sweatshirt, right? is that like a football jersey? not sure I have the right idea exactly. I know Gamma Phi and Phi Mu have not been on a lot of the same campuses, but we are expanding in the South...and we Gamma Phis have always used pink and white for the pink carnation...and also because brown is tough to come by in greek letter fashions!

On campuses where the jersey color is a tradition, would Phi Mus take exception to Gammies wearing pink and white?

Sat next to a Phi Mu on a plane coming from TN to CA once...she was so adorable!

My first letters were 'family' letters, but (I've said/explained this a few times on GC, I guess my chapter is highly unusual)-we have two families in my chapter and we're one of the few SK chapters that does so. We have Big/Little like everyone else, but we also have Mom/Daughter (now Sigma/Kappa). The Mom/Daughter families are the ones most equivalent to everyone else's big/little families. You don't know who your mom is, you find out during I-week, they buy you your first letters and make you a paddle, you give them a pillow.
Anywho-my family colours are maroon with white trim on a grey background. Kinda neat because they're also the school colours.

That's really interesting. So you kind of have two bigs? Are you generally closer with your "mom/sigma" than with your big? And then your big could easily be in a different "family" than you, am I getting that right? That's really unique!

My pledge class sweatshirt is green with magenta/green patterned letters. (We ordered them toward the end of our pledge semester and got them around initiation so they were our first official lettered items of clothing!)

I can't think of anyone in my chapter who has a lavender and maroon block ANYTHING. There are some gray sweatshirts with dark purple and light pink... but nothing in our actual colors.

I have a sweatshirt in white with teal letters and black border, and a black sweatshirt with hot pink letters (no border).

Pretty much right on both accounts. I was (still am) a lot closer to my big but that was due to extenuating circumstances. I still love my mom, otherwise I would not have requested her :)
But yeah, your big and your mom are in different families most of the time. My big wound up being part of my mother/daughter family though I can't quite remember how-whose mother she is.

SigKapCoug-I have block letters with our colours :D I got them on a pair of black butt pants (the letters on the butt). Maroon letters with lavender trim. I think I got them from http://www.sororityspecialties.com. Alas I cannot wear them anymore because the drawstring came out during the wash and I have no idea how to get it back in. The one time I DON'T tie it in a bow for washing...geez.

You can get a plastic straw from about any food place, cut a slit in it maybe an inch or so from the end. Put the drawstring through it, tie a knot, then work the straw through. When it comes through the other end, tie a knot on the strawless end, cut the straw.

Voila!

You rock! Even though it's now too warm to wear these pants I can undo the mess!