My mother and I both share a love for Halloween.

Having her and my father visit this past weekend—right when the air was just starting to get cool and the leaves were just beginning to change color outside the windows of their hotel—has only made me that much more nostalgic for all our fall activities.

Driving down back country roads to the farm on the edge of the apple fields to pick up freshly made cider donuts, screaming and laughing as I reach my hand into the ice cold insides of a freshly carved pumpkin, and singing along to “I Put a Spell On You” every time we hear that Hocus Pocus song.

I miss you, mom. Thanks for the visit, the memories, and the bowl of Halloween candy—even though I know I told you I didn’t want to gain the Freshman 15!

The Project: Skull Back Shirt

The Inspiration: This shirt. Halloween.

The Materials: White V-Neck. Scissors. Pencil.

The Steps: Like I said, my parents visited this weekend, so my DIY time was limited. Sunday night, I decided to cut out this little number while eating my Halloween candy and talking to my sister.

The first thing I did was lay out my white tee, front side facing down, on a hard, flat surface. I grabbed a pencil that had a point, but wasn’t too sharp. (I figured out that it was must easier to write with.)

Then, I traced out my skull face. I didn’t worry too much about it being perfect. My favorite part of this shirt is the destroyed, slightly grungy look.

Next, I took my scissors and got to cutting! I followed pretty closely to the line I drew, then went back in and made certain parts of the hole bigger. If you want to keep parts of the fabric intact and stretched across the opening, leave the strip about three times as wide as you want it. I’ve learned that they rip during the stretching process!

Next comes my favorite part of DIY clothes: the little details! I added some extra small holes around the upper neckline and bottom hem to continue the destroyed look. I cut around the edge of the sleeves and neckline, making sure I was outside the seam line to prevent it from completely fraying.

Once I was done with cutting, I worked on stretching the shirt out. I gave it a few tugs vertically and a few more horizontally, then worked around the holes on the back until they looked how I wanted them.

To finish up, I hand washed my shirt in the sink with a little bit of bleach to remove all the leftover pencil marks and hung it up to dry.

Now all I need is a Halloween.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012 at 10:27 pm and is filed under I Could Make That. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.