Disney Shirts and Autograph Books

We are going to Disney World in the next couple of months, and before  you say it, yes I know that I am crazy. An overwhelming, over stimulating theme park for 6 days with a 2 year old and me being 7 months pregnant. Let me present my argument (because I know you are dying to hear my reasons).

-Ben and I both have holiday birthdays. Celebrating our anniversary was a big deal to us but then 2 years ago we spent it in the hospital having Miller and last year we were prepping for his birthday party. This year is our 5th anniversary and since Miller is a little older, we wanted to make sure we celebrate.

-Why take Miller? Simple, I was not ready to leave him. Plus, I want to go on a trip for our anniversary and want to spend his birthday with him, which is the day after. There is only way way to get it both ways.

- Miller is so young that he will not remember anything. Why bother? At 2 years old, he is still free, so it is not like we are wasting admission on him if it is a bust. Regardless of him remembering anything, we are still making family memories.

- Why put myself through the stress of Disney World? All the other places we wanted to go would be so far away that we would have to fly and that is not something I wanted to do with Miller and all the stuff he needs. Disney World is a 6 hour drive  so we can pack up our car with whatever we need. Plus, Ben has never been to Disney World and I really want to take him.

- Why go when I am so far along? When we started planning, we were trying to get pregnant and assumed that we would be. I booked the trip right around the time we found out we were pregnant so I knew that I would still be allowed to travel. However, I did not plan on how much harder this pregnancy would be on my body than the last one. We are going with a toddler so we will already have to take  things slow and allow for a daily nap break. I will admit that I am really worried about this but we will just play it by ear.

Some people go insane planning their Disney World trips. I am a person who normally plans every little detail but I am trying to go in with a loose plan that has plenty of wiggle room. I wanted to do a few projects for our trip but not go too crazy.

First up, T-shirts. I was only going to make one for Miller but since I was pregnant I thought it would be fun to make one for the baby and I will just wear it. While I was at it, I decided to make my cousin Ally one (she will be there as well for a couple of days).

I went really simple and did a Mickey head silhouette as an embroidered applique. I found a basic silhouette on-line and adjusted it on my computer to the sizes I wanted. I actually did 4 different sizes that varied by an inch each so I could lay them on the shirt first and see what fit the best.

I laid them out on my fabric to see how big a piece of it that I needed. I cut that and then cut a piece of Ultra Lite Heat-n-Bond (the purple package and not the Ultra Hold) that was just slightly smaller. You do not want the Heat-n-Bond being exposed to your ironing board so that is why you cut it a smidge smaller.

Iron that on. At that point you can trace your design onto the back of the Heat-n-Bond and cut it out.

Peel off the paper layer and lay it where you want the applique on your shirt. Iron that on. To place it on Miller and Ally's shirts, I folded the shirt vertically down the middle and pressed my iron there just so I could get the center. Mine was a pain in the rear to place. I had to put on the shirt, put the applique where I wanted it and traced it with chalk.

After that, I ran it through my sewing machine with a zig zag stitch. One good tip that I found on-line was to leave the tails of your thread long so that you can use a needle, pull them back through to the inside of your shirt and knot it there.

For mine and Ally's, I sewed on a bow as well. 

 

I am not even sure if we will do the whole meet the characters thing but if we do, I want to be prepared. I wanted a simple book where the characters could sign on one page and I could hopefully put a picture with him and the character on the other. 

I bought a simple 44 page sketch book from a craft store. I wanted something that had a wire binding so we could flip the pages to make it easier for the character to sign. I also got a piece of red and black foam sheets that has sticky on the back.

This is ridiculously easy so I am not even going to write out instructions. I cut out and stuck the red foam to the front and back covers. Then I just used one of the same templates I had from the t-shirts, cut out Mickey's head and stuck it on the front. Some people do more stickers and personalize it with the kids name but I just wanted simple.

Both projects were majorly simple but that is the way I wanted them.