/ / / / Upcycled T-Shirt Ornaments

Upcycled T-Shirt Ornaments

Handmade Ornaments | Harry Potter Crafts | Recycled Craft Projects

Upcycle an old shirt and create your own t-shirt ornaments for Christmas! These simple ornaments are a fun, no-sew project!

T-shirt with characters from Harry Potter on it lays next to fabric ornaments cut from the t-shirt.

Hello Crafty Friends! I’m back today with another simple ornament craft for the holidays. This time I’m sharing how to upcycle an old shirt and create easy, no-sew, t-shirt ornaments! 

A couple of years ago we purchased these fun Harry Potter shirts for both of my kids and they loved wearing them. The shirts no longer fit, but we weren’t ready to donate them. Instead, I used one of the old shirts to make ornaments nine different ornaments, each one featuring a character from the shirt design.

The characters on the shirt were perfect for this craft but you could do the same thing with other types of shirts. This simple no-sew craft uses fusible interfacing to bond the t-shirt fabric to stiffened felt, forming adorable ornaments that are perfect for your holiday tree or a child’s mini tree if your family has one. 

Nine fabric ornaments made from a t-shirt.

This site contains affiliate links. I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. [Learn more]

How to Make No-Sew T-Shirt Ornaments

Supplies Needed:

  • T-Shirt (shirts with small images and characters on them work well, but you could also split up a larger image or pattern to create abstract ornaments – there are so many fun options!)
  • HeatNBond Ultra Hold Fusible Interfacing
  • Kunin Brand Stiffened Felt in a coordinating color
  • 1/4″ Ribbon, yarn or Baker’s Twine
  • Fabric Scissors

A blue Harry Potter t-shirt, a roll of interfacing, blue felt and yarn.

Step-by-Step Tutorial

Step One: Cut the shirt so you have just the side with the design. Start by cutting the shirt along the side seams and shoulder seams to separate the part of your shirt with the design you want to keep. For this shirt that was the front section. 

The front of the t-shirt is cut out.

Step Two: Fuse the design with a piece of Ultrahold Interfacing. Cut a piece of Ultrahold fusible interfacing large enough to cover the entire design area and iron it to the back of the design. I cut a large rectangle large enough to cover all of the little characters.

A piece of fusible interfacing is ironed to the backside of the t-shirt front.

Below you can see my design ironed to the fusible interfacing. I also have a piece of blue stiffened felt ready for the next step. 

The front of the t-shirt is cut out around the fusible interfacing.

Step Three: Cut out the ornaments. Peel the paper backing from the t-shirt design and cut out the areas you are making into ornaments.  For this shirt that meant bubble cutting around each character. I decided not to cut directly around each one since their wands would be so thin and delicate. Instead, I cut them out leaving about 1/4″ around them (what I call bubble cutting!). 

The paper backing is peeled from the tshirt.

The characters are cut out using a sharp scissors.

Step Four: Iron the ornaments and a ribbon loop to a piece of felt. Position the ornaments designs you just cut near the edge of the felt and slip in a loop of ribbon. Iron the ornament to the felt trapping the ribbon between the layers. Use a piece of scrap cotton or muslin as a pressing sheet so you don’t melt the designs. 

The ornament is ironed to a piece of blue felt with a loop of gold ribbon.

The t-shirt character is ironed to felt with a piece of muslin protecting the top of it.

Repeat for all of your ornaments. Below you can see my t-shirt designs ironed to the felt and waiting to be cut out. Make sure to iron the area over the ribbon ends very well. You can see my ribbon loop popped out on my Hedwig ornament, so I needed to re-iron that specific ornament a second time.

The characters are all ironed to a piece of blue felt with ribbon loops added to the top of each one.

After they are cut out, the ornaments are finished and ready to be enjoyed! This was such a fun way to upcycle an old shirt! My kids love them. The stronghold fusible interfacing worked really well for this project and made these ornaments a quick, no-sew craft! 

Three cute ornaments made from t-shirts.

Nine fabric ornaments made from a t-shirt.

I hoped you enjoyed this ornament tutorial! Did you know I have dozens of ornament tutorials on my site!? Be sure to check them out if you are looking for more DIY projects for the holidays :) 

Happy Crafting! -Kim

Similar Posts