DIY Nightmare Before Christmas Shirts

If your family loves Nightmare Before Christmas, this project is for you!  These DIY Nightmare Before Christmas Shirts glow in the dark, are easy to make and fun for the whole family.

This post contains affiliate links which mean I make a little something when you purchase through the link, with no extra cost to you.

To make these DIY Nightmare Before Christmas Shirts you will need:

Cricut Maker

Cutting Mat

Weeding Tools

Cricut EasyPress 2

Cricut EasyPress Mat

Expressions Vinyl Heat Transfer Vinyl Glow in the Dark

Black T-Shirts

Downloads available at the end of the post

 I use my Cricut Maker to cut out all my SVG Cut Files.  Upload the cut files into Cricut Design Space.  If you’re not sure how to do that, check out this video on how to upload SVG files into Cricut Design Space.  The main things to remember once your file is uploaded into Design Space is to size the design to fit your t-shirt.  I vary the sizes based on who I’m making the shirt for.

Once the design is ready to cut, click make it and mirror image the design since we are cutting it out of iron on vinyl (heat transfer vinyl) before cutting the design.  Lay your glow in the dark heat transfer vinyl onto your cutting mat with the shiny side down.  Load the mat into the cutting machine and select iron on as your cut material.  Press the green blinking go button to cut your design.

When the design is finished cutting, unload the mat and remove the glow in the dark vinyl.  Use the weeding tool to remove any unwanted vinyl from your design.  The Sally file is the hardest to weed.  You want to make sure to not remove too much of the design.  Look at these photos to know what the design should look like.

DIY Nightmare Before Christmas Shirts

Remember the design will be a mirror image, so the This is Halloween design will be backwards.  Turn the weeded design over onto your t-shirt.  The plastic sheet will be a little sticky and will help keep the design in place on your t-shirt and also protect the glow in the dark vinyl from the heat of the EasyPress.

Lay the shirt on top of the EasyPress Mat, place the vinyl down onto your t-shirt with the plastic sheet between the EasyPress and the vinyl.

Use the EasyPress 2 to press your design onto your t-shirt.  Find the correct settings for the type of material you are using.  For these cotton shirts, I did a temp of 315 degrees for 30 seconds.  Then I flipped it over and did it on the back for 15 seconds.

Once the shirts have cooled a little, remove the plastic cover sheet and your shirt is ready to go!

I wasn’t planning on making a whole set for the family, but once I started making Jack Skellington, I knew I had to do an entire collection of DIY Nightmare Before Christmas shirts.  And they looked so cute on the kids!

I loved them so much, that I made some for my girlfriends and I when we recently attended the Oogie Boogie Bash at Disneyland.  We added Oogie Boogie and zero to our Jack and Sally designs.

Download the SVG files using the links below:

This is Halloween Cut File

Jack Skellington SVG Cut File

Sally SVG Cut File

Oogie Boogie SVG Cut File

Zero SVG Cut File on Cricut Design Space

You can see some of the other t-shirts I’ve made for my family, including these Mickey Pumpkin T-shirts, Squad Goals t-shirts and these Castle Home T-Shirts.  I might have a slight obsession with making Disney inspired t-shirts.

Happy Crafting!

Liz