Mickey Mouse Shirts

Ready for it?  I'm going to post pictures of our Disney shirts. To protect the identity of my kids, I had a little fun in photoshop...

So how did we do them?  Easy peasy.
1) I downloaded a template of Mickey Mouse ears.
2) Next I traced that template on our shirts in pencil.
3) I sewed around the Mouse ears with dental floss.  I've read you should use waxed.  I used the teflon slippery kind.
4)  I pulled the dental floss tight to make a puckered "balloon".

Now this is where I diverged on the two techniques.  By the way, I skipped the soda ash step some tutorials recommend. 

Orange and black Halloween Mickey shirts. (concentric circle idea)
1) I put rubber bands around the puckered balloon to keep it separate.  I did mine right on the line of the floss--I've since read you should make sure it is below it to keep it pretty separate. 
2) Using the puckered balloon as the end, wrap rubber bands to section off the shirt..  By the end it should look something like a snake.
3) Use fabric dyes in any pattern you want until each section you want colored is colored.  For more coverage, make sure you get into the folds or grooves of the shirt.
4) Be careful not to let dyed sections touch each other--color will transfer.
5) Wrap in plastic and let it sit for a day or so.

Blue and red (swirl shirts)
1) Lay your shirt flat with the Mickey poking up in the center.
2) Take the Mickey and twist it clockwise gathering up the shirt as you go.
3) Once the shirt resembles something like a fat disk, carefully wrap rubber bands across it dividing the shirt like a pie.  Keep the Mickey head poking up. 
4)  Color the Mickey head with fabric dye--wrap with plastic wrap and secure with elastics.  Then use the fabric dyes in any order you want until on the pie until each section you want colored is colored.  5) For more coverage, make sure you get into the folds or grooves of the shirt.
6) Be careful not to let dyed sections touch each other--color will transfer.
7) Wrap in plastic and let it sit for a day or so.

Once the dyes have set for a day or two, unwrap each shirt and run under cold water until the water run-off is clear.  Dry the shirts and wash them again.

On the blue and red Mickey shirts, the stitched Mickey didn't show up well.  To rectify that I tried using bleach with a toothpick and a q-tip to trace the outline.  That didn't work too well, so I used a bleach pen to trace the out line and that worked much, much better.

Other tutorials with photos here and  for swirl pattern here.  Cutest video of both techniques here.