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First of all, in case you missed yesterday’s post……..we’re gearing up for Valentine’s day.*



Check out the little ruffled heart Valentine’s Dress (from recycled Tshirts) I made for my 5 year old girl.









Okay, so it’s my little guy’s turn next.* My Valentine Boy Shirt idea changed oh, about 7 times.* The first idea involved “too many hearts”, according to my husband.* (This coming from a man who has pink and purple in his closet. Yeah.)* Whatever, Valentine’s is all about hearts and love and frill, right?* But I decided to ease up on the hearts and to tone it down a bit…….and made something a bit more boyish.



With monsters.



(However, girls like monsters too……so this could be for boys and girls.)





A sweet little appliqued monster, holding a BE MINE valentine on his belly.









Once this monster started coming together, I kept laughing.* I don’t know what it is about monsters.* They’re so silly and goofy and pretend-scary.* It’s just funny.* And with monsters, anything goes.











And no joke, once I held the shirt up for my little guy to look at……..he laughed.* And then laughed some more.* He just got a kick right out of this little Valentine monster.









Whew, glad he likes it.













Boys are funny.* Even when their tongues come out of their mouths for 95% of their pictures.*

Anyone else have that problem?









This little guy is all ready for Valentine’s day.* And treats……..lots of them.* (This kid has a sweet tooth like his momma.)









Would you like to make your own Monster Valentine’s Shirt?





Supplies Needed:

• Plain Tshirt (purchased like the one I used or recylced from a bigger Tshirt like this one)
• scrap fabric pieces in a variety of colors
• fusible adhesive
• narrow ribbon
• 3 buttons
• freezer paper (more info on there here)
• fabric paint (I used white)

First of all, you can use the monster template that I sketched out, here.

(Keep in mind, this monster size was made to fit a size 4T size boy Tshirt.* Adjust the sizing as needed.)



Now, select the colors of fabrics that you would like to use for your monster parts.* Iron one side of the fusible adhesive to the WRONG side of your fabric pieces, leaving the paper on the other side of the adhesive.









Now, you could cut your heart out first and then put your lettering on or do it the HARD way like I did and put your letters on first.* Ack!* Either way, you’ll need to cut out your letters out of freezer paper (more info on freezer paper here), with the shiny side of the freezer paper facing down.* You can draw the letters out on freezer paper and cut them out with an exacto knife or cut them out with your Silhouette machine (or other craft cutter), if you have one.



**Here’s another post about using freezer paper as a fabric stencil.* It may clear up some questions.



Then iron your freezer paper stencil down (remember, shiny side down) onto your fabric and then apply your fabric paint.* Let dry completely.* (I use a hairdryer to speed things up.)





Then peel back your paper to reveal your letters.





Then I cut out my heart by trying to center my heart template over the top.* It way way too hard to see where the letters were and center it, etc.* So cut out the heart first and then paint the letters.*



Then cut out the rest of your shapes, using the templates found here.* It’s easiest if you trace the templates onto the back of the paper where the paper backing of the adhesive is.* Then cut around the lines you drew.

(Keep in mind, this monster size was made to fit a size 4T size boy Tshirt.* Adjust the templates as needed.)





Next, place the monster shapes down where you’d like them on your shirt.* Then lay little pieces of ribbon down to connect the eyeballs to the monster body, tucking the ends under the eyeballs and body.





Once everything looks centered and just how you want it, pin down the pieces of ribbon and pull everything else off.* Zig-zag right over the top of the ribbon, securing them down in place.**





Then peel off the backing of the adhesive on each of your pieces.





Then iron everything down.* Now, stitch around each piece, using a straight stitch or a zig-zag stitch.* Using a straight stitch will allow the edges to fray just a bit but that doesn’t bother me any.* And zig-zagging takes more time and causes a little bit of bunching and pulling as you sew.* But is still totally do-able and if you take your time, looks great.





Then, hand sew (or machine sew) some buttons onto the center of each eyeball.









And that’s it.



A sweet little Monster Shirt for Valentine’s Day.













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