DIY Mickey Laundry Hamper Labels

This little project was supposed to be a quick and dirty nap-time project. In fact, it was a bit more time consuming than that. These hampers have been around a long time, and while I was sewing on yet another replacement strap, I remembered that I'd always wanted to mark them light and dark. And the idea of using a simple Mickey popped into my head. So a new project was inevitable!

I was able to whip up the Silhouette design in no time. If you'd like to download these silhouette files, you can do so right here: Mickey Dark Laundry Label, Mickey Light Laundry Label. Don't be surprised when you open them and the text is mirrored. Remember you need to do that so it will print the right way when you iron it on.

Getting the heat transfer material to adhere to the duck cloth, that was not so simple. I'm not exactly sure what happened with it, if it was old (it was) or if my iron couldn't get hot enough. I tried several variations of heat temps and cloth fabric on top; I even turned it inside out to iron these on. I spent about 30 minutes trying to get the first label to adhere. It was firmly adhered on the top part of the Mickey, and absolutely not on the rest. I finally decided to peel it off the transfer paper myself - stretching it a bit - and then adhering it without the transfer paper, but still using a cloth between it and the iron. That worked, but it's slightly wrinkled and warped in places. The second label did better, as I used the highest possible setting on my iron. I still had to pull out the center of the "g" myself and adhere it separately. I can't say I'd be very anxious to use this material on anything that would get any sort of wear and tear - or go through the laundry. But for this project, I can live with the imperfections. I'll just think of Mary Blair every time I use them, and her purposely imperfect 5-legged goat!

Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!