An easy DIY Charlie Brown shirt for a Halloween costume

It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

Make a Charlie Brown shirt out of yellow polo shirt with easy instructions for how to make the zig zag pattern.

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Every year my family watches It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown based on the Charles M. Schulz Peanuts comic strip. Actually, we watch it several times a year, especially around Halloween. It’s my favorite Halloween movie. I love everyone one of those Peanuts characters. So when a bunch of my blogging friends decided to post about Halloween movies, I knew which movie I wanted to use.

Be sure to check out all of the other Halloween movie inspired projects below.

My son has very blond hair, and when he was younger, several people called him a Charlie Brown baby. So I decided he needed a Charlie Brown shirt to go with his hair. It’s a simple shirt that he wears everywhere, but it would also make a fun little boy costume. I actually made this shirt a couple of years ago, so there aren’t many pictures of me making it. But it’s pretty easy to make.

Charlie Brown Shirt Supplies

Yellow polo-style shirt (with a collar)
black knit fabric
needle and black thread

How to Make a Charlie Brown Shirt

We bought yellow knit polo shirt from Amazon in size 4T to make the Charlie Brown shirt, but you could always make your own polo shirt. Kwik Sew has a cute oliver + s pattern for a toddler or kids polo shirt.

Make a Pattern for the Zig Zag Stripe

I measured across the front of the polo shirt. It is 13.5 inches wide. So I drew a rectangle that is 13.5 inches wide. I made my pattern in Adobe Illustrator because I f ind it easier than drawing with a pencil and ruler. (I even design my room layouts in Illustrator.) But you could easily draw your rectangle on a large paper.

I made the rectangle 5 inches tall. Obviously, if you’re making a pattern for a larger shirt, make the rectangle taller. Next, I divided the rectangle into 6 parts, one for each up and down. And divided it in half.

Finally, I drew diagonal lines through the boxes to make two zig zag lines that follow each other.

If I get rid of the rectangle lines, you can see the zig zag pattern that is left. Now cut out the pattern on a black knit fabric. Cut 2, one for the front of the shirt and one for the back.

I used knit fabric because it doesn’t fray, so I don’t have to do anything with the edges. It also stretches with the t-shirt when my son wears it.

Sew the Zig Zag on the Charlie Brown Shirt

Pin the black zig zag on the shirt, lining up the front and back pieces at the side. I sewed the zig zag onto the shirt by hand with a back-stitch. A back-stitch lets the stitch stretch, which is important with a stretchy knit fabric. You can watch this video if you’re not sure how to back-stitch.

And here’s my cute little Charlie Brown waiting for the Great Pumpkin.

And ready to go trick-or-treating.

On the last Monday of each month, a group of bloggers participate in a #MovieMondayChallenge, hosted by C’mon Get Crafty! We decide on a topic, genre, or specific movie to use for inspiration and everyone gets free reign to create something wonderful!

This month’s challenge was. . . . HALLOWEEN!!!! Everyone was allowed to choose their own favorite Halloween-themed film for this challenge.