Camp Half Blood Here We Come (Well, the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam at Least)

So one of the many preparations we took for our family vacation and reunion for my parent's 50th anniversary was to make more family shirts.  The older boys are HUGE Percy Jackson fans--and two of them have ADHD, so they like to joke they are just like Percy in some ways.  (If you haven't checked out any of Rick Riordan's books, I highly recommend you do).

In any case, Whirlwind suggested that since our itinerary included seeing both the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam (sites where a couple of events in the books take place), we make Camp Half Blood t-shirts.  Camp Half Blood is where Percy Jackson and all the other demi-gods go each summer to escape the monsters from mythology.  They learn to fight, use their talents and, more often than not, go on quests.  Their t-shirts are orange with a Pegasus and the name Camp Half Blood on them.

I found the graphic online and converted it into an SVG file so I could cut it using my Silhouette Cameo.  I used the freezer paper technique to create the stencil.  I used Safety Orange shirts--which had the added benefit of making my family really easy to spot anyplace we were at.  Having had a child wander off before, I also know it's really easy to say to employees, "My child is wearing a shirt exactly like mine," and then everyone knows what to look for. 

Then I used a combination of black Sharpie and black paint to fill in the blank parts of the stencil.  You must make sure you have something between layers of shirt to protect the backside from getting colored/painted on.

Finished product (against record low levels of the Hoover Dam).  

Autism Hat Tutorial

 

For a while now I've been contemplating making something that would possibly make my life a little easier.  I've had enough meltdowns on outings with my ASD kids to know I wanted to do something to indicate we are an Autism family.  I also wanted it to be an item I could keep in my car or diaper bag and pull out if we had an unplanned excursion.  (Those are the kind that prompt the most meltdowns).

There are great t-shirts out there, but those would be wearable once and then need to be washed.  I would also have to get it back into the bag/car after it was washed. (Which might be a challenge since I've forgotten to restock diapers for the baby from time to time).  I also wanted to have whatever I made available for daily use on our vacation to Disney World. 

I thought about creating vests out of lightweight material, and I may still do that, but another crafter on the fabric store suggested hats to me.  This made total sense to me since I have to have all the kids pack hats for the Florida sun anyway.  I checked out the store and they both painters caps and plain baseball caps.

I found this awesome puzzle piece flannel in the fabric store.  Multi-colored puzzle pieces are a symbol for Autism, so this was perfect for my needs.

I used my silhouette cameo with a fabric blade and iron-on interfacing.  Flannel is thicker, so I found the canvas setting worked well.  I used a downloaded Mickey head and turned it into a cut file using my silhouette software.  I cut three from the fabric. You can't really see two cut Mickeys with this photo, but they were there. 

To iron on the Mickey head, I needed to support the inside of the ball cap. I first used a wadded up pair of jeans I was repairing.  It didn't give enough support.  Then I used a folded towel which worked much better. 

I looked high and low to find the right scale letters for my hats.  I also bought a fabric paint pen.  The fabric paint pen didn't give me the look I wanted, and I was lucky enough to find what I needed at Hobby Lobby.  They are JOY brand Baby Monogram Letters and Numbers.  You can find them here. 

I laid out the letters first on the hat (which was a bit tricky), then figuring out where the T needed to be more or less centered, I started ironing down letters.  I found it easiest to keep working in one direction with the letters since the iron had heated up the fabric and made the glue on the letters start to warm up a little.  

By the way, the dark spot you see above the Mickey head in the picture below?  It was wet there where I had wiped away the fabric paint.  The fabric paint really didn't work as well, though I don't have a picture to prove it to you.

The finished blue cap. 

For the record, the painters cap really didn't have enough room to use any letters, so I left it plain.

The white baseball cap with a bit more embellishment.  

 

I was overall pleased with the end result.  I had the kids wear the caps to the Disney and instead of glares, I got smiles and patience.  Acroboy wore his cap and sat front and center at Turtle Talk With Crush and he was chosen to talk to Crush.  (Boy!  Was he excited!).  I'm not sure if it was because of the hat or where he had chosen to sit, but he was thrilled none-the-less.

I think the hats also were a blessing when he got himself lost for a few minutes.  He found a parent with kids (like we've trained the kids to do), and they were talking to a Cast Member when we located him.  The hat let the Cast Member and kind parent know we had some special needs going on. 

The hats of course got dirty, and we lost one of the letters I hadn't ironed down enough.  When we got home I washed them in a sweater bag (the mesh kind that sometimes they hold nylons and other things too).  I figured if any more letters came off in the wash, they would end up in the bag.

See the clean, but damaged hat?

I then ironed the letters back on to the hat, and they look as good as new!

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.