Matchy-shirts

[momof2n2]

I know -- some people hate them.

But my girls, mom, sister & I made our shirts for our upcoming WDW trip.

We're also going to make Mickey tie-dyes for all 10 of us (DH & DS X 2) in a few weeks.

 

[Ddp3]

Those are so pretty! Good job!

 

[Crystal824]

Great job.

 

[xmansmom]

Those are great! I love matching shirts!!!

 

[momof2n2]

Shirts fit for princesses!

We have a trip planned for Walt Disney World in Florida next spring. We very much enjoy wearing matchy-shirts, and the homemade kind are especially up our alley.
While we have some plans to make Mickey-head tie-dyes for the whole family, I wanted to make these crown shirts for the ladies in our traveling part: me, my sister, my mom, and all four girls. The day we wear these, the gentlemen will all wear their GM/Chevrolet t-shirts. My mom and sister found their own tanks at Kohls.
I started with picking up white t-shirts at the end of the summer whenever I saw them. I managed to get nicely made shirts for Marie, John, the boys, and I at JCP for $4 each. I found the younger girls’ shirts at WalMart for $3 and $4 a piece, depending on the size. I stored them in my closet until the timing was right. And as Columbus Day found my sister with the day off AND a forecast of 70○, we decided to squeeze in an art project!
I found a crown shape online. I picked this one because it wasn’t too delicate or detailed, but it definitely conveyed “crown.”
I printed it on cardstock and cut it out. I did a slightly smaller version for the two youngest girls.

I traced it onto contact paper.


And cut them out.

When we were ready to make the shirt I laid them down on a clean, dry surface (not always easy to find in our house!) and adhered the crowns as straight as I could. (They look great.)

The girls and my sister and I went to town with hundreds of little star stickers.






We set up two folding tables in the grass and put down tablecloths for the Dollar Tree to protect them
We stuffed the shirts with plastic bags.

Now – I have to take the time to talk about the product we used.
When I made the same style shirt in 2007, I used this product:

It worked GREAT. These days, they go for about $8.00 each at Michael’s. I couldn’t find them any cheaper on Amazon, either. I estimated I’d need about 8 of them. Now, if I had time to visit Michael’s 8 times, I could have saved 50% on each bottle. However, I don’t have that kind of time (who does?) and I didn’t want to spend $60+ on dye.
I saw this product while I was visiting the store. It was $30. With my 50% off coupon I got it for $15. Problem solved!

Except there were issues. Plenty of them. Reviews on Amazon are mixed, but some folks said as long as you are careful to unlock the bottles properly they would work fine. So, as I prepared the bottles by adding in water I was careful to unlock each bottle carefully.
We took the dye outside where the plan was I would do the first shirt and we’d see how it went.


Well – problem A was that blue didn’t work even though I unlocked it properly. We found an old spray bottle in the house and used that for green.


Marie left hers to me, and Tabitha did her own. It was way too messy for Johanna. The bottles leaked EVERYWHERE, and it wasn’t long before another color bit the dust. I switched out the sprayers and that worked for a few minutes, and then when I went to switch it back it broke, as well.



Problem B came up when I read the directions that could only be accessed by ripping OPEN the box. The dyes were only most active for 45 minutes. Um… how then were we to do the backs?




Problem C was they were more than a little messy.

The boys helped us carry the tables into the garage. I forgot to take a photo of that. I went to Michael’s with another 50% coupon and bought another package.
The next day I flipped them all over and did the backs myself. I also bought a handful of spray bottles for $1 each to use if/when the sprayers broke. Well, they broke all right. But the problem with the sprayers I bought was they sprayed too wide or too fast. The too fast mode saturated the fabric and the dye went UNDER our star stickers. Problem D (although not related directly to the product, it only happened because the product stunk.)
Wednesday, Marie and I worked for well over an hour removing the stickers.

I think they came out really well.

 

[momof2n2]

sorry to resurrect an old thread. Someone asked how I made them, so I figured I'd add it here.

 

[amberdc1987]

sorry to resurrect an old thread. Someone asked how I made them, so I figured I'd add it here.

And that someone was ME! These are awesome. We might give them a shot. I might start looking for other paint to use. It seems like y'all had a hard time with those.

 

[momof2n2]

And that someone was ME! These are awesome. We might give them a shot. I might start looking for other paint to use. It seems like y'all had a hard time with those.

I wholeheartedly recommend the first ones I showed. They run for eight dollars a bottle here at Michael's. If you had enough time to collect coupons and go multiple times, they can be very affordable. I was also doing eight or nine shirts. I needed more than the average user.

 

[momof2n2]

http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1...w/aadIt18xfk0/s1600-h/IMG_3693%255B2%255D.png

 

[VACamm]

Those came out really great!

 

[amberdc1987]

I wholeheartedly recommend the first ones I showed. They run for eight dollars a bottle here at Michael's. If you had enough time to collect coupons and go multiple times, they can be very affordable. I was also doing eight or nine shirts. I needed more than the average user.

I will definitely. We aren't going until February so I've got plenty of time. I only need to do 4 of them, so hopefully I can get everything together.

 

[momof2n2]

Those came out really great!

Thank you.
My kids loved them.

We did Mickey head tie dies for the whole family, too.

 

[EvilQueen2018]

Those are terrific. Don't make me do added work, I doubt mine would look as good. I have to show dh (because they are impressive), but hopefully he will see I'm not that talented and cant duplicate your hard work.

 

[momof2n2]

Those are terrific. Don't make me do added work, I doubt mine would look as good. I have to show dh (because they are impressive), but hopefully he will see I'm not that talented and cant duplicate your hard work.

LOL
My named and "crafty" NEVER go together.
This is really that easy.
Especially with the first kind of pump spray.
And you can do any shape.
We did with Mickey heads in 2007.

 

[EvilQueen2018]

I would definitely make the several trips for the better spray like you suggest. We aren't going until July 2018 so it isn't like I don't have the time, I'm just very nervous about doing anything that requires me to be physically crafty. I just design stuff based on images I get online. I may (may) be talked into trying it though because you have done the trials and errors for me so it looks easier than I originally thought but looks are typically deceiving. I've never dyed anything before and only used fabric markers that didnt turn out well. I didn't know about contact or wax paper at the time though and only had loose stencils. This was before I knew what chat forums and pinterest were. This was only 3 years ago but I'm 40 and technology wasnt at the forefront of my upbringing. You certainly make me want to try though. Maybe I'll try it in secret so the kids dont know if it doesnt work out for me. We are a family of 6 with only one of them being little and I want a different matchy shirt for each day. With one day being our travel day and 4 days at the parks, that's 30 shirts. 2 days are already planned but I still have 3 days we need and I dont want those ones to be exactly the same. Something like this would make them just different enough to not be exact matches but close enough to tie together.

 

[momof2n2]

I would definitely make the several trips for the better spray like you suggest. We aren't going until July 2018 so it isn't like I don't have the time, I'm just very nervous about doing anything that requires me to be physically crafty. I just design stuff based on images I get online. I may (may) be talked into trying it though because you have done the trials and errors for me so it looks easier than I originally thought but looks are typically deceiving. I've never dyed anything before and only used fabric markers that didnt turn out well. I didn't know about contact or wax paper at the time though and only had loose stencils. This was before I knew what chat forums and pinterest were. This was only 3 years ago but I'm 40 and technology wasnt at the forefront of my upbringing. You certainly make me want to try though. Maybe I'll try it in secret so the kids dont know if it doesnt work out for me. We are a family of 6 with only one of them being little and I want a different matchy shirt for each day. With one day being our travel day and 4 days at the parks, that's 30 shirts. 2 days are already planned but I still have 3 days we need and I dont want those ones to be exactly the same. Something like this would make them just different enough to not be exact matches but close enough to tie together.

Oooo. Let me know if you try it!!!
I picked crowns because then we could wear them other places, too. (Not just mouse heads.)

I am SO NOT crafty by nature. I first tried these after I saw a friend make them with young kids at a VBS. She did cut out shapes of the US!!!

You could seriously keep it simple. For example, a mouse head and just blue. Spraying in different directions and leaving some areas white. The only thing to be 100% sure of is to make sure you get all the way around the contact paper to get a sharp outline.

Then other shirts with, say, another symbol and all orange.

Or just two colors and stripe it.

 

[EvilQueen2018]

I'll definitely let you know, Ive bookmarked this thread for the instructions so I'll have to come back once I'm ready to buy the paint. I'll be sure to post the pics. Im doing some iron on stuff but was recently intrigued by the wax paper thing and now this.Contact paper isn't incredibly difficult to work with. Its nice that all the shirts wont be vinyl decals. I'm thinking maybe I could do something themed for AK with animal print and animal silhouettes or something. Those could be worn anywhere and I could do different print patterns and colors for each person. The bleed of the dye would add to achieving the natural look of their coat. That certainly wouldn't have to be perfect. Now I'm getting talked into this. You make a great salesman when you have a bored housewife with time to kill. My brain takes in what you posted and commented and starts twisting it into my own thing and now I need to do it.

I also take the menu at McDonalds and the like as merely a starting place and can never order anything as it comes. My life is special order, lol. Buying premade shirts off esty were never an option and it just now occured to me that the stores that sell Disney would suffice for many.

 

[TeamH5]

I wonder if it would work with reg dye? Like RIT. just mix the dye and out them into spray bottles.

I don't know how you did it with the pump bottles. I did this for my trip in 2013, with 5 shirts for 4 days.. Ours turned out like graffiti, but boy did my forearms HURT from all the pumping! Lol I'd do air spray in a heartbeat if it was quicker/easier.

Thinking maybe of doing this for our Dec trip, with candy canes instead of stars and Mickey/reindeer heads.. For MVMCP.

 

[momof2n2]

I wonder if it would work with reg dye? Like RIT. just mix the dye and out them into spray bottles.

I don't know how you did it with the pump bottles. I did this for my trip in 2013, with 5 shirts for 4 days.. Ours turned out like graffiti, but boy did my forearms HURT from all the pumping! Lol I'd do air spray in a heartbeat if it was quicker/easier.

Thinking maybe of doing this for our Dec trip, with candy canes instead of stars and Mickey/reindeer heads.. For MVMCP.

I've never done 20 shirts with the pumps. But, yes, I remember having to switch to using my thumb, or trying to use my left hand, back in 2007.

RIT would be thin like the stuff I used. It was ok. But the sprayer was hard to adjust. Either too diffuse, or such a stream the dye seemed to pierce the fabric and bleed.

 

[momof2n2]

There IS an air spray type product I just remembered. Also by Tulip. I don't know how well it works, but I just remembered seeing it!