Boy's Skull Heart Valentine Shirt

Cuteness alert! I wanted to share with you how I made this Skull Heart Valentine Shirt, in case you missed the tutorial over at Expressions Vinyl - - it uses the technique of layering heat transfer vinyl and you can find the full tutorial over there.

But first just a quick heads up if you love boy stuff  - - comfy AND cute boy pants for babies are hard to find - but they're on Zulilly today for only $10, so check it that out - (they have girl ones with built in skirts too...)

ANYWAYS, on to the tutorial....

I saw this shirt in an email from Old Navy and knew I could make something similar and be super thrifty...I had purchased a raglan tshirt this summer at a garage sale (I'm thinking $0.50) and knew it'd come in handy for a refashion.  Meanwhile, my son wore it and refashioned it with hot chocolate - awesome.  Here's a visual of the inspiration and what I had to work with:

The skull with the heart patch was perfect to cover the stain.  I used heat transfer, aka t-shirt vinyl, in layers and if you haven't done that, give it a try - it adds depth and layers to the design.  Like I mentioned, head over to Expressions Vinyl to see how to layer heat transfer vinyl.

You could also freezer stencil the image on - that would be pretty cute.

Now, you could you stop there.  That's all the inspiration shirt had.  But I thought I'd be fun to incorporate some stitching for that added touch of love.  To stitch onto knit tshirts, you'll need to iron on some stabilizer to the underside of the shirt - you can kind of see that here:

Then slowly work stitching around the skull using a sewing machine, or even hand stitching.  I did inside the eyes and nose, but not the grin because I didn't think I could get precise enough for the tight teeth spaces.

I love the extra little touch the stitching gives the shirt:

And wear it proudly!!

Ever tried layering heat transfer vinyl??  You can do it!
Need to buy vinyl??  Check out the amazing prices and awesome selection at Expressions Vinyl.