Creating your own felt character t-shirts is quite simple. We are going to see Yo Gabba Gabba! Live in two weeks and I wanted my girls to have the option of a cute shirt to wear. Being frugal I knew that making my own character shirt would be much cheaper than finding two to buy. I instantly decided the shirts would be made out of felt since that was the cheapest option.
I bought each piece of felt below for 75¢ each at JoAnns. Buying from the bolt is the way to go! On sale the felt was $2.99/yd and I bought 1/4 yard of each piece. Seven colors at 75¢/each cost me $5.25 for ALLLLL of that felt! Clearly I barely made a dent in the amount that we had and we have plenty of felt left for other activities. This craft is perfect for using stained clothing since you may possibly cover the stain up, but you can also buy new t-shirts. The t-shirts I had were stuck in the closet from Target’s clearance. I think I paid $1.50/each for the girls’ shirts. My total cost for this project (including one shirt for each girl and one for me) is under $10.
Felt Character T-Shirt Materials
- Felt/material
- Pins
- Computer/Printer/Paper
- Scissors
- Hot Glue – or – Needle and Thread (or sewing machine)
Make Your Own Felt Character T-Shirt:
1) Find a template online A template is anything you can use as a pattern. I printed my Yo Gabba Gabba photos from the Nickelodeon website. Play with the scaling options when you print to obtain the desired size.
2) Pin the pattern to the felt/material
3) Cut out the shape
4) Cut out all the small shapes. This may require printing another copy of the image you are working with.
5) Glue the pieces together using your cut out template to guide you. You can also sew them. This is a preference issue. If the shirt is a one time wear thing then hot glue will be your quickest bet. If you plan on saving this shirt them some iron on adhesive with a needle and thread or sewing machine will yield long term, washable results.
6) Apply the finalized piece to the shirt. Again, how you do so is your preference.
Below you will find the photos of my Toodee progress.
If being crafty is not for you, I always recommend Etsy! Have you created any fun shirts lately?
We love crafting! Be sure to check out our Craft Posts for more ways to create fun, frugal crafts and projects at your house!
Leandrea is a married mom of two girls, ages 13 and 12, living in Atlanta, GA. She is passionate about helping people save money one coupon at a time. Read more
These turned out great! When I saw your first picture, my first thought was that I could have never created the characters to look that perfect on my own. I totally thought you had done it all just by looking at a picture! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the idea of cutouts!! I have to remember this!
very pretty 😀