Make your own Mickey Mouse t-shirt with fabric transfers

Who doesn't love a Mickey Mouse t-shirt?  I'm a big Disney fan, so I'll wear a Mickey tee any day of the year, even when I'm not at a Disney Park! Disney tees at the Disney Store or Disney Park tend to be expensive ($25 and up), but fortunately you can find Disney tees for as little as $10-$15 at stores like Target, Wal-Mart, Kohl's, Old Navy, and UNIQLO.

Many people like to make their own Disney shirts, not just to save money but to have something that's truly one-of-a-kind. Mickey is notoriously difficult to draw properly, so most DIY Mickey shirts involve printing a design on iron-on transfer paper. In my opinion, unless you have a really good laser printer, your iron-on design tshirt is still going to look homemade. I would far rather hand paint or screen paint a shirt -- check out my post with instructions for painting a tshirt with freezer paper stencils!

Another great alternative to ironing on a Mickey printout is to iron on a fabric Mickey applique. It's so easy to do, and the result looks great. Watch the video I made to find out how:




Here are the written instructions:

MATERIALS

• Fabric. I used plaid red and black flannel, but you can use any design you want. I would use regular cotton or a cotton blend. 1/8 yard is more than enough. The flannel was on sale at Jo-Ann Fabric for $4 per yard.
• T-shirt. I bought a plain red t-shirt from Target (on sale for $6).
• Fusible paper. I used Wonder-Under paper-backed fusible web from Pellon (#805). I bought 1/4 yard at Jo-Ann Fabric for $4 per yard.
• Scissors.
• Hot Iron.

INSTRUCTIONS

1) Print out your design on regular paper. I found a Mickey Mouse silhouette that I liked and sized it to fit to regular printer paper (8.5"x11").

2) Cut out a piece of paper-backed fusible web to 8.5"x11". Place your design printout underneath the fusible web paper. The fusible web paper has a smooth side and a rough side -- it's pretty easy to tell which is which. Use a ballpoint pen to trace your design onto the SMOOTH side of the fusible web paper.

3) Place your fabric on an ironing board, WRONG side up. Place the fusible web paper on top of your fabric, ROUGH side down. Press for 5-8 seconds with a hot, dry iron. Let cool.

4) Get a sharp pair of fabric scissors and cut out your design.


5) Gently peel off the paper backing. You should see a thin layer of adhesive on your fabric.

6) Place your t-shirt on an ironing board. Position your fabric on your t-shirt, RIGHT side up (the side with the adhesive should be in contact with the t-shirt).  Cover with a damp press cloth and set your iron to a Wool setting. Press firmly for 10-15 seconds. Repeat to make sure the entire area of fabric has been fused to the t-shirt.  Remove the press cloth, set your iron to hot and dry, then iron the area again to remove all moisture.

That's it! I'm so happy with how my new Mickey t-shirt came out! Mickey looks perfect, and the shirt looks like it was made in a factory. I can't wait to wear it to Disneyland!