Customized Dinosaur Hoodie

This project has been a big hit among the little people in our family.  And to tell you the truth, I think I might like one for myself too! 

You could also alter this project to make another favorite animal, a cat with whiskers coming off the hood, dog with droopy ears, a bear, a horse with yarn in place of the spikes, the possibilities are endless!  Have fun!

These are so simple to make.  Sorry, I didn't take a ton of pictures when making these, so if something doesn't make sense please ask questions.

HeatnBond Ultrahold 

Materials:
-hooded sweatshirt, whatever size needed
-felt, 1 or 2 colors, for the spikes and claws (the amount you will need will depend on the size of the sweatshirt you are using)
-chalk or fabric marking marker with disappearing ink
-scissors and/or rotary cutter and mat
-measuring tape or ruler
-paper and pencil for making spike pattern
-sewing machine
-sewing pins
-thread that matches the largest spikes
-HeatnBond Ultrahold
-fusible interfacing
-iron and ironing board

Process:
1. Find the center of the back of your sweatshirt and mark with your chalk or marker the center from the top/front of the hood to the bottom/back of the back on the outside of the shirt.

2. Measure the length of that line from the top/front of the hood to the bottom/back of the shirt.  This will determine the number and size of your spikes.  {On the blue and gray shirts I made the spikes have 3 inch sides. The red one's spikes have 2 inch sides.}  To find out how many spikes you need, decide what size your spikes are going to be (its up to you) and how many will fit end to end down that center line.  Its better to figure less rather than more; you can always put a little space between them.  Don't try to squeeze too many in you'll make more work for yourself.

3. Making your spike pattern: Now these aren't really triangle shapes they are actually diamonds. Take the triangle size you want to use and mirror it to make a perfect diamond.  {I just cut a triangle with 3 inch sides out of a paper that was folded; just place one side of the triangle tight against the folded edge and do not cut on the fold.}

4. Once you have the pattern cut out, you can use it to cut out your felt diamonds (one diamond for each spike).

5. Now, cut out smaller diamonds out of the fusible interfacing (if you aren't going to use your spike pattern again you can just evenly trim that diamond on all sides to make it smaller for your interfacing pattern or just make a smaller pattern using the same method).  

6. Center interfacing diamond on each felt diamond and iron it to adhere.  Repeat for all spikes.

7. Place the prepared felt diamonds on the center of the back of the shirt using the center line as a guide.  Pin all spikes in place, moving if needed to make them equally spaced.

8. With all spikes pinned in place carefully sew from the top/front of the hood to the bottom/back of the shirt following you marked center line down the center of each diamond spike.

 9. Iron the spikes closed.  {If you want you can cut triangles of the HeatnBond the size of half of your interfacing diamond and iron those triangles to half of the open spike diamonds, then remove the paper backing and iron the spikes closed and this way you won't have to pin them or worry about them moving when you sew them.}

10. Using the matching thread in your sewing machine, sew around the closed spikes one at a time. {I just moved from one spike to the next without cutting my thread and then just trimmed all the threads at the end.}  If you are only doing one color of spikes you are done!  Congrats!

11. If doing two colored spikes: 
Next, iron HeatnBond to the back of the felt that is going to be your second color of your spikes.  Using half of your interfacing pattern (just half of the diamond, a triangle), cut out twice as many smaller triangles out of the HeatnBond backed felt as you did spike diamonds.

12. Remove the paper backing from the HeatnBond, carefully center a triangle on a larger spike and iron on well (don't move your iron too much because it could make the triangle slip off center); repeat for all other spikes on both sides.  If you are not doing the "paws" on the front you are done!  Congrats to you!

13. For the paws:  
Draw a pattern for your paws, using the front pocket as a guide for the line. (Notice the curve line on my pattern, it follows the curve of the pocket.) 

14. Iron HeatnBond to felt the color of your large spikes and cut out two "paws", but be sure to flip the pattern over so that they are mirrored (like your shoes, the same size and shape but flipped).

15. Remove the paper backing and iron the paw to each of the front pockets.  (This is cute and would be awesome if you were doing a bear, cat, dog or some other kind of animal hoodie.  But here we are doing DINOSAURS so we needed to add claws!)

16. Iron some HeatnBond to the smaller triangle spike color and cut out your claws (for mine there were a total of 6 claws), just eyeball it.

17. Remove the paper backing and iron the claws on top of the paw's "fingers".  You are done!  Enjoy!

*You could add a cool zipper pull if you would like; something to go with the dinosaur/animal theme or maybe even the name of the person the hoodie is for.