DIY Disney Pirate Onesie T-shirt

I've mentioned before that we love having plenty of T-shirts while at Disney; this is especially true for our toddler set. And I especially love coordinating the onesies with the Quick Change Trousers I've made for them.

I have been able to find packages of plain onesies at Dollar General very reasonably priced. I would look around at your favorite discount shops for the best deal. This is great budget-friendly project. And it's another quick project (for those of you who have to find your creativity during nap time). I found this Yo Ho image all ready to go in the Silhouette shop. For those interested parties, it's pirate swords, image id 9329. From there it was as easy as downloading, printing on heat transfer paper, sending it through the Silhouette, and ironing it onto a plain onesie. 

Not only was this a great outfit for our little one in the Magic Kingdom at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party (a seriously easy "costume" to pack), it would be perfect for Disney's Pirate Adventure. Don't forget about these children's activities hosted throughout the resorts. They are the perfect thing for a non-park day. Your little one can experience a bit of themed magic and you can take an hour or so for yourself. Now that's what I call a win-win! To hear what other veteran Disney Mom's think of these children's activities, take a listen to this PassPorter podcast about child care in Walt Disney World. There are some great bits of advice in there.

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

DIY Disney Boxer Briefs from Tshirts

Ok, I could hardly wait to share this project with you! I think it is A-DOR-A-BLE! I made these underpants from some Tshirts our travel group purchased a few years back. We were all mousekateers for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. (If you've never been to this special event, you really must go. The parade and fireworks alone are worth the price of admission!) These mousekateers are just the kiddos; the adults were in on the fun too! And because I know someone will ask, we ordered the Ts from Zazzle. It was easy for each family to get just what they wanted (and spell all the names correctly!)

And from those fabulous Ts, comes these fabulous unders!

I was shocked at how easy it really was to create these. I plan on making several pair for the potty training days ahead! I used this tutorial from Sew A Straight Line. I used the no-fly version since this was my first attempt at sewing with jersey. I highly recommend reading through her tips on sewing with jersey too. It was extremely helpful for me. (And just as an aside, if you are not familiar with the Celebrate the Boy event hosted by Made By Rae and Made, you really need to be. Such great stuff!)

I used regular elastic for the waistband on these boxer briefs and the ringer edge from the cuffs and collar of the shirts for the leg edges. I cannot tell you how much I love these! And such a great way to reuse shirts that were too small to wear anymore. Jiminy Cricket would be so proud!

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

DIY Disney PJs for the Entire Family

This is a great idea for ALL members of your travel party. It can be tricky to come up with ideas that boys and men can appreciate, and pajama bottoms work for just about everyone. I love the "Pajama Pants for Everyone" pattern in Heather Ross's Weekend Sewing.  She provides multiple sizes and easy to follow instructions. This makes is very easy to navigate sewing 5 pair! Getting the sizes right for those not in your family can get a little dicey, but I leave it to you to sort that out. Usually a mom or nanny can fill you in.

I also love this project because you could make these for every Disney day of the week and still find a wide variety of fabrics and prints. I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: you can find lots of fabric that echoes Disney without it having licensed characters. There is a lot out there right now in the way of pirates (...of the Caribbean or Jake) and cowboys (Jessie and Woody), and I've been able to find circus elephants (Dumbo),  outer space (Buzz Lightyear) and sharks and fish (Nemo) to boot. Using non-licensed fabric can save you some money, so try and get creative with your fabric choices if your watching your bottom line. Sometimes just browsing the fabric aisles sparks an idea for me. That is, when I don't have Happy and Minnie in tow!

I used a Where's Perry print for Doc's pjs. He's a real fan of Phineas and Ferb these days and I have to admit, I find them pretty awesome myself. It's a nice light weight flannel. Doc has a thing for comfy, cozy clothes. I was able to whip these up in a couple hours from cutting them out to sewing the last seam. Not bad for a great pair of jams! Since our next trip is in October, and it's still pretty warm in Orlando at that time, the next round of pjs will be cotton.

Enjoy your Disney pajama parties and send us pics if try this one out! We love to see what our readers do. Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

DIY Disney's Dumbo Poster T-shirt & Pants

I'm a HUGE fan of the Dumbo ride. (And if you haven't seen the refurbished Dumbo ride & Storybook Circus, you are MISSING OUT! It's the best refurb to date.) I may have been accused of having more children, just so I have a good excuse to spend my days in Fantasyland. Not that one really needs an excuse; unless said person is dragging a tween boy around to all the "kiddie" rides. SO uncool. Nevertheless, this project was inspired by my affection for the lovable elephant.

For this T-shirt project, I originally used Transfer MAGIC's Inkjet Transfer Paper for Light Colored, Light Weight Fabrics. I still got a plasticy finish to the transfer, which I hate wearing, but the image looks perfect. Unfortunately, the design peeled off after one wearing in the Florida heat. I was so disappointed that when I got home I immediately made a new T-shirt using Lesley Riley's TAP Transfer Artist Paper. It's FAR superior to anything else I have used. And the transfer is just as sharp. I will be using this for the rest of my transfer projects for sure. You can see a close up in the bottom photo.

I purchased a series of vintage Disney poster images through Nukes at Etsy. These are top quality and big, so at a dollar an image, you can't go wrong. Because this is a jpeg, I used Photoshop to size and reverse the image for transfer. My Silhouette SD has trouble importing jpegs; perhaps the other models, or newer software has made this easier? I wouldn't know.

Fabric for these pants is from Spoonflower: Circus Elephants by pennycandy. And the pants pattern is Anna Maria Horner's Quick Change Trousers, because I truly can't get enough of them.

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

DIY Finding Nemo Outfit

For our last trip, Happy had completely outgrown all the pants and Ts from the year before. I decided he needed a pair of Nemo pants and a matching shirt for our day in Epcot. One should look his best when he meets Crush for the first time!

As before, and because I love, love, love, this pattern, I made Anna Marie Horner's Quick Change Trousers (size 18 mos. this time). I love how all the seaming gets hidden with the reversible design. And all is not lost if, say, a Mickey Ice Cream Bar gets dropped on them. Just wipe 'em up as best you can, flip 'em in-side-out and carry on: a momma's dream. I found both fabric's at JoAnn's. I think they are both the store brand.

To make the T-shirt, I imported clip art of Dory I found on-line into a Silhouette SD file. The font is Findet Nemo. If you decide to do something similar, remember to reverse the image in the Object > Transform menu (I used "flip horizontally"). I then printed it onto Print 'n Press Iron-on Transfer paper for Inkjet Printers (by june tailor) - don't love the shiny quality of the iron-on, but the transfer was perfect. Next time I would have the Silhouette cut out Dory and I would cut out the text myself before transferring. Live and learn, right? Also, after one washing the image was cracked and wrinkly. If you want the t-shirt to last I highly recommend using Lesley Riley's TAP Transfer Artist Paper. The results of this are far superior to anything else I've tried.

Again, I can't say enough about the Quick Change Trousers. I wash the dickens out of them and they have lasted through two kids! And the more pairs I make, the faster I can whip them up. Definitely a nap time friendly project. Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

DIY Disney Pirate Onesie

I've mentioned before that we love having plenty of T-shirts while at Disney; this is especially true for our toddler set. And I especially love coordinating the onesies with the Quick Change Trousers I've made for them.

I have been able to find packages of plain onesies at Dollar General very reasonably priced. I would look around at your favorite discount shops for the best deal. This is great budget-friendly project. And it's another quick project (for those of you who have to find your creativity during nap time). I found this Yo Ho image all ready to go in the Silhouette shop. For those interested parties, it's pirate swords, image id 9329. From there it was as easy as downloading, printing on heat transfer paper, sending it through the Silhouette, and ironing it onto a plain onesie. 

Not only was this a great outfit for our little one in the Magic Kingdom at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party (a seriously easy "costume" to pack), it would be perfect for Disney's Pirate Adventure. Don't forget about these children's activities hosted throughout the resorts. They are the perfect thing for a non-park day. Your little one can experience a bit of themed magic and you can take an hour or so for yourself. Now that's what I call a win-win! To hear what other veteran Disney Mom's think of these children's activities, take a listen to this PassPorter podcast about child care in Walt Disney World. There are some great bits of advice in there.

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

DIY Disney Toddler Pants

I have a passion for sewing. Baby and toddler sewing is so quick, it's almost irresistible for me. I also happen to have a kid with extremely sensitive skin, so souvenir clothes require washing before wearing, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Making and taking our own is a perfect solution.

Here I used Anna Maria Horner's Quick Change Trousers pattern from Handmade Beginnings. I love this pattern because it's reversible. Those of us who have experience with kids in the parks know that sometimes, a reversible pant can save a photo op! Theme parks seem to have a way of throwing dirt on my kids without them even knowing it. This way, I don't have to carry multiple outfits into the park, and a mess truly is just a quick change to a clean pant. It's a win-win.

If you are an avid sewer, or fabric collector, these may even be a very budget friendly project. The smaller sizes requires under a yard for the main fabric, and the bottom patch can be made from less than 1/2  a yard easily. It was a great stash busting project for me!

I have had very good luck finding Disney licensed fabrics at JoAnn's, including what you see here, Winnie the Pooh, Phineas and Ferb, and Princess & Fairies galore! But don't think you have to spring for the licensed stuff. You can easily find fabric that calls to mind Disney without the branding (especially when those fabrics are in the parks). I have found fish/shark fabric in a Finding Nemo color scheme, generic pirate fabric (bottom right), little people dressed as you might find them in It's A Small World (top right), and non-Disney fairy tale illustrations. I've even used holiday fabric for the reverse when we were going to be in Disney over Halloween or Christmas. Use your imagination and take some time to browse. If you find it difficult to get to a store without a child nipping at your heels, Etsy has some terrific finds and you can browse those stores from the comfort of your own home. Etsy has it's own bonus as well: you can find fabrics there that aren't sold in the US (or wherever you're cottage is located). I love Japanese prints and there is definitely a Disney market in Japan. Sometimes you can find really unique fabric that's worth the time and cost of ordering.

And because some of you will ask, the licensed onsies were found at Walmart for under $5.00 each. The other two I made using the Silhouette SD. Stay tuned for tutorials on how to make your own Disney onsies. Until then, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!