Mickey Mouse head Tie Dyed T-shirts

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I get so many questions about and compliments about our Mickey head tie dyed T-shirts that I thought it was about time I share some pictures of the process and some instructions with all of you.  The first thing I do is cut the Mickey heads out using my Mickey Font Cricut cartridge.  There is no rhyme or reason to the size that I cut them.  I usually end up cutting multiple sizes and then place them on the t-shirt to see how it looks and then cut one bigger or smaller depending on how it looks.  I always cut them out of black cardstock so I can see the outline of the paper good through the inside of the t-shirt. 

Once the cut out of the ears is placed inside the shirt and centered where I want it, I just take a pencil and trace around the Mickey. 

I didn't take a picture of the next step in the process because it was kind of hard to take a picture while stitching.  What you will want to use is waxed dental floss as your thread.  It is important that it is waxed.  You will want a good size length of floss threaded into your needle   I don't think it really matters where you start the stitching, but I always start at the bottom of the Mickey head in the middle.  For a clear and well defined Mickey head you will want to keep your stitches pretty tight and close together.  I really wish I had a photo of this step for you so you could see it.  When you get all away around the Mickey head and back where you started you will want to pull on the floss to gather your Mickey head and make it pucker up so it looks like this (below).  Be careful not to pull too hard because you do not want the floss to break.

After you get it popped up from the shirt looking like the picture above you want to take thick rubber band(s) and wrap them tightly at the base of the Mickey head.  It is important that none of the stitched area is under the rubberband.  If stitching area gets wrapped in the rubberband, you will want to pull it out from underneath or you will not get a good border around your Mickey.  On the adult shirts I usually use two rubberbands and on the kids only one.  On the adult shirts the band width is probably about an inch and the kids maybe 1/2-3/4".  It doesn't have to be an exact science...after all, it is your own personal artwork!



Once you have all your shirts stiched, puckered and banded you will want to soak them in soda ash.  I have heard you can purchase this stuff in the laundry aisle at some grocery stores, but I for the life of me have never been able to find it in any around me!  I usually buy a couple boxes of it by Tulip from M's or J's.  I always soak mine overnight. 

Once they are soaked you can squeeze out the excess water and then you want to lay them out on a flat surface with the Mickey head facing up like pictured below.

After you have it all flat with the Mickey head up you want to grab ahold of the Mickey head by the rubberband base and while holding the rest of the shirt still with your other hand you want to start twisting the Mickey head.  You may need to adjust and straighten the shirt during your twisting.

Keep twisting and straightening...

....and twisiting

Basically your end goal when all the twisting and straightening is done is to have it so it looks like a giant cinnamon bun with a Mickey head sticking up out of it like shown below!

Then you want to take thin rubberbands and band the shirt to hold all the edges in the bun form.

Again...no exact science to this, but I usually use 3 rubberbands for the kids sizes and 4 rubberbands for the adult sizes. 

It is important that you keep the Mickey head pulled up and out from underneath the other rubberbands.  I usually put a rubberband around the outer edge of the circle part of the bun as well, but it is not mandatory.  I just like knowing that all is being held in shape during the dying process.

These are the dyes that I used by Dylon and I was very happy with my color results.  I have heard other people say that dyes by Jacquard give a very vibrant color, but I think you can only order those online. 

I used ketchup and mustard containers from the dollar store for my dyes and just wrote on the outside of them what colors they were.  The nozzles on these bottles made it easier to get down inside the folds of the bun which puts more color on the t-shirt.  If you prefer more white to show, do not go as deep into the folds. 

These were the easiest ones I made because they were our black and white shirts.  All it required me to do was squirt it down with black all over! 

The multi-colored ones were a little more complicated.  One this particular one I wanted the Mickey head to be black so I held the shirt upside down with the Mickey head facing down as I carefully squirted the black dye onto it.  Once I got it covered in black ink, I quickly and carefully wrapped it with a piece of plastic wrap and then rubberbanded around the bottom VERY TIGHTLY to hold the plastic in place and keep the black dye from dripping onto the rest of the shirt. Then I just picked part of the shirt to use the yellow dye on (including down in the folds) and the rest I added the red.

I followed the same kind of dying pattern on the bottom side of the bun, still making sure I was getting down inside the folds.


Once I had finished adding the dye I wrapped the entire shirt securely so the dye couldn't drip out onto any of the other shirts and placed them back in the big blue tub.  The longer you let your t-shirts cure and set in the dye before washing...the better.  You will want to give them at least 24 hours, but I usually like to let mine sit for 3 or 4 days. 



Once you've let the dye set for the length of time you choose, you will want to unwrap the first layer of plastic wrap that is covering the entire shirt and rinse it thoroughly in cold running water.  Once the water that is draining is running clear, go ahead and unwrap the Mickey head and rinse that under the running faucet.  Once the entire shirt is rinsed thoroughly you are ready to remove the rubberbands and the stitching!   Your next step is to run them through the washing machine on cold water cycle.  I always wash my like sets of dyed shirts together for the first time without mixing them with the other sets.  I usually do one wash and then run them through again with an old towel.  The old towel will usually pick up any extra dye that isn't set into the material completely.  I also do not put my tie dyed shirts into the dryer.  I always put them onto a hanger and let them air dry. 

Here are some pictures of our shirts that I made for our June 2010 WDW trip.  I really need to get busy soon on some new ones for our trip later this summer! 

I had to share two of our purple and yellow shirts - daytime shot....

...and night! 

I hated these black and white shirts when I got them rinsed out.  It was a lot more black that I expected or wanted....I wasn't even going to take them with us.  My husband talked me into taking them and I'm so glad he did!!!  This picture of our family in front of the Tree of Life at Disney's Animal Kingdom is one of my all time favorite pictures of us.  Thanks Babe for being the voice of reason (if only this one time!)

I made myself a pink and orange Mickey T!  Pink and orange is my absolute favorite color combo and I didn't think I could talk the boys into it!  lol  I kept it for one of our short park days and let the guys sport their Mickey spangled banner t's!

If I had a dollar for every person that stopped us and asked where we got our shirts I would be a rich woman and if I would have had extra T-shirts with me...I would be even richer!  I loved how proud of our shirts my boys were.  Usually before I could even respond Tanner or Parker would speak up and say "My Mom made them!"  That alone made all the time spent making them well worth it!

I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial.  For those of you who have been asking for so long...thank you for your patience, hope it was worth the wait!  If you end up making some of you own, make sure to stop back by and let me know!  I would love to see how yours turn out!  Have a magical day!