Animated Christmas Hearth Shirt

I love ugly Christmas apparel! I made this Christmas shirt, featuring a video of a crackling hot fire in a fireplace. You can almost feel the warmth! This is a great DIY holiday project for all ages, and super customizable to your decorative tastes. This shirt also doubles as a phone holder for when you go to parties. Happy holidays!

You will need:

• 1 mobile phone or iPod Touch
• black pen
• tan felt, 9" x 5 ½"
• ruler
• double-sided carpet tape
• hot glue gun with glue
• mini Christmas present decorations
• tinsel pipe cleaners (green/red/silver)
• red felt
• white felt
• miniature Christmas ornaments

Place your mobile phone in the center of the tan felt. Trace the sides and bottom. This will show you what area should not be glued or taped so the phone can be dropped in at the end.

Now turn on your phone screen and see where the actual video will be playing. Make these markings around the phone.

This should be a bit smaller than the phone itself so the phone does not fall through the cut-out. You could also add a clear plastic sheet from the inside if you want the viewing hole to the fire to be as large as possible. Now cut out this viewing area with your scissors.

Flip over the felt piece and draw evenly spaced horizontal lines across the fireplace.

Now draw evenly spaced lines going down every other section of bricks.

Now draw evenly spaced lines between each of those lines on the other lines of bricks.

Put on your shirt in front of a mirror and measure the perfect hearth placement for your body from the bottom of the shirt. Mine was about 5 ½ inches. Take off the shirt and center the hearth on it, using the measurement you just took from the bottom.

I used double-sided carpet tape to stick on the bulk of the hearth so it looked super smooth. I used the weight of the ruler to keep it down straight and added the adhesive one side at a time so there were no mistakes or chances of going crooked.

Okay, well the presents, drum and bear were my choice. You can add any Christmas garb you like! I am a drummer and couldn't resist this baby drum ornament, alongside this tiny fuzzy bear my grandpa gave me when I as a kid. I added the presents with hot glue but used the carpet tape on the bear so I could peel it off later, as it was more special to me. :)

Cut out some fat looking socks from your red felt. Make sure they are the right size to hang off the mantel. It would look silly if they were hanging in the fire. :D

Cut out some white trim and hot glue it onto the tops of the red socks.

Hang your stockings from the mantel of the hearth! I glued on some miniature ornaments I had on top of the mantel to give it some depth.

Take 2 pieces of green tinsel pipe cleaner and twist them together. Not too tight, as you want it to look a bit fluffy. Now wrap a red tinsel pipe cleaner around the wreath, from the bottom, up to the top, then down from the other side.

Glue on a mini ornament of sorts on the bottom. You can also add a ribbon here.

I thought it would be extra ugly to make the tinsel garland hang off the chest towards the fireplace. While I was wearing the shirt, I marked proper areas, and added an extra dot in the center where the wreath should go.

I cut an inch off one of the silver tinsel pipe cleaners to make one look longer than the other.

Hot glue one side of the garlands down. Place a weight on them as they dry so they don't move out of place.

Bend the garlands and secure the other side with hot glue. Use the weight again. It won't take long at all to dry.

I twisted a baby piece of green tinsel pipe cleaner and placed them on top of the ends of the silver garland to make it look more polished.

Grab your mobile phone and load up a video of a crackling fire. I used this 10 hour one from YouTube:

Fireplace 10 Hours Full HD Video

Don't forget to force your friends to wear this ugly shirt before going out! I took my bestie to the mall in this mess and it was a great time. I think he wears it well as he has less curvature! Like a canvas for ugly, he is! :D