Cuteness alert! I wanted to share with you how I made this Boy’s 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.
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.
And wear it proudly!!



Super cute. I’ve never used heat transfer vinyl, but I’ve done similar things with freezer paper and paint. Maybe I should make a similar girly one for my daughter who wears eye patches.
I love it!
This is adorable!!! Love it!
I SO love this!!! Thanks for more tshirt inspiration!!
xo
Heather
So stinking adorable. I love it. Good boy Valentine’s shirts are always hard to find. You did awesome!
So great to see the whole tutorial after oooing and ahhhing over your photo; makes me excited to try heat transfer vinyl. Brava!
Very cute! Love the knock off!
Awww…so cute! My son would’ve loved that when he was little!
Mandy, he is ADORABLE! 🙂 Love the shirt too!
Mackenzie 🙂
Finally a cool Valentine’s shirt for a little boy, and he sure is a cutie! LOVE!
Super sweet and what a little hunk you have on your hands! 😉
Boys always seem to get skipped over on all holidays but Halloween, but this is totally boy-cool! Thanks!
How CUTE!!!! 🙂 the shirt is adorable, and that little guy wearing it, welllll awhhhh! Thanks for the inspiration!
Jaime from crafty scrappy happy
Ok the model is adorable! So is the shirt!
Oh my gosh, I want one for myself! And he’s too cute in it!
Totally rad — my daughter would flip for this shirt. Beautifully done!
Jenn
I love this! I have a skull embroidery that I think I may add a felt heart eye patch to. Thanks for the idea!
Mandy, you make the cutest things!! I love this.
My little boy LOVES this t-shirt! If you don’t mind me asking, where did you find the image?
@ckdesigns – – I used the old navy shirt as inspiration and traced over in my silhouette software – I had to freehand a few things too, but overall it worked
Where did you get the iron on skull decal? I love it!
I made it using my Silhoutte cameo machine – I love it too!