A couple of years ago I made my husband a DIY Mens Disney shirt and he wears it every time we go on a Disney vacation. This shirt is one of his favorites and I’m excited to be packing it this week for our Fourth of July visit to Disneyland.
In 2011, as Disney World was celebrating their 40th anniversary, I fell in love with the design of the anniversary logo. The design was perfect for a freezer paper stenciling project.
Supplies:
- freezer paper
- fabric paint and brush
- white t-shirt
- cotton fabric (not necessary if you plan to stencil directly onto the shirt)
Freezer paper can be purchased from most grocery and craft stores. I was skeptical about the process the first time I used freezer paper but quickly discovered just how easy it is to stencil detailed designs.
I found the logo image online and traced it onto the front (non waxy side) of a piece of freezer paper. Then I carefully cut out the portion of the design I would be painting onto the shirt. I also cut out a small mickey ears design for the front pocket of the shirt. I used a warm iron to gently press the waxy side of the design onto a piece of fabric. I was nervous about making a mistake on the shirt so I chose to make a fabric patch. After your first few projects with freezer paper stenciling, you might decide to stencil directly onto the shirt instead.
Paint the exposed portion of the design with fabric paint. I intentionally left brush marks as I painted because I wanted the patch to look distressed. Allow the paint to completely dry and then carefully pull the freezer paper from the fabric. I used tweezers to remove the small pieces of paper. The logo looked perfect when all the paper was removed!
I pinned the patches to the shirt and stitched around them several times with white thread on my sewing machine. My stitches are intentionally crooked. To give the patches a more distressed appearance I used tweezers to gently fray the edges. This could easily turn into a no sew project by using fusible backing to iron the patches onto the shirt.
Although this shirt is already a couple of years old in my husband’s closet, I should probably make matching shirts for my daughter and myself.
Does your family wear special shirts on your Disney vacations?