DIY Disney Shirts Tutorial with CDS Video Tutorials!

A step by step DIY Disney shirts tutorial including a link to a video tutorial on how to splice images in Cricut Design Space.

I’m super excited about this post today!  My whole family is going to Disney World for the first time in about 6 weeks… Woo Hoo!  

We are very excited about visiting Disney, Universal Studios, Kennedy and Discovery Cove.  We are getting geared up and of course, making t-shirts for everyone was on my list.  

I went back and forth on what kind of shirts I wanted for everyone and finally decided to give everyone their own unique shirt… I know a lot of work… but they came out really cute so I thought I’d share my DIY Disney shirts tutorial so you can make your own too!

Last time we went to Disney Land I had made basic mouse ear shirts DIY Disney shirts for the 7 of us…

Since I’ve learned a few things since then I decided to go a little bigger!  I asked everyone what their favorite Disney character was and went to work on designing the shirts in Cricut Design Space.  

I wanted the names to be in the middle of the images so I had to split all the layers of the image.  I made my first video since it was really hard to explain with screenshots. 

I used two different ways to design these images so I have two video tutorials for you!  Check out both of them to see which way you prefer! Check out my Cricut Design Space video tutorial by clicking here on how to cut images in half!  

Check out how to slice out sections in multiple layer images by clicking here.

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If you are going to Disney, make sure to check out how to easily make a countdown calendar with an old frame.  Or if you’re a Disney nut, making a Disney fabric tumbler or alcohol ink tumbler is perfect for showing Disney love!

Materials for DIY Disney Shirts

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links from Amazon, Walmart.com and/or Cricut.com. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my links (purple text).

• Shirts! – It was really hard to find 11 shirts in all the different sizes I needed in the same color.  I didn’t want the scratchy cotton ones since it will be hot and sticky when we are in Florida.  I ended up getting these Hanes XTemp Shirts found here at Walmart.com.
• Cricut Explore or other vinyl cutting machine
• Heat Transfer Vinyl – my favorite is Siser EasyWeed Iron On.  Colors you need depend on which character you are doing!
• Heat Press – this is the one I have and love!  Or you can use an iron but the shirts usually don’t last as long.

Disney Cricut Shirts

Let’s get started…  Remember to watch my videos by clicking here and here if you need help designing in Cricut Design Space.

I also created another video for creating the images in Inkscape (a free download program) and then transferring them to CDS for editing. Click here for this video.  This is how I made Mary Poppins, Cheshire Cat, Pumba, and Animal shirts.  I’m definitely no expert at Inkscape but I know enough to make a few basic SVGs.

After I cut and weeded all the vinyl, I was left with vinyl all over my house.

Layering vinyl is pretty straight forward.  Start out by pressing your plain shirt to get out extra moisture.  

Then to get the center, I fold my shirt in half and press again to get the middle line. I also fold my vinyl in half (sticky sides away from each other) to get a crease and then match up the lines.

Press for 10 seconds or so.

The wonderful thing about Siser EasyWeed is that you can pull off the top sheet when it’s hot.  So pull it right off.  If any of the vinyl edges come up with it, press it for a little while longer.

Then align your next layers being careful not to overlap any backing plastic with the vinyl or you’ll end up with the vinyl melted on to that.  Trim the pieces so there isn’t much around the vinyl and do layers as needed.  

The one thing is the vinyl will shrink a little with each press so they might not line up perfectly.  You don’t need to do the first few layers for the full time since it will be pressed again.  

Just enough so you can peel the backing off.  Around 10 seconds is usually good enough.  Sometimes I will stretch the shirt just a little to get it lined up better.

Put a Teflon sheet over the whole thing and press again.  For Mickey, I was able to press the cream face, red clothes, and yellow shoes all at one time.

Then my final layer was white and the tongue.  Lay the teflon sheet over,  press again and the front is done!

For the back, I was able to press it all at one time since nothing was layered (15-20 seconds).

I love how they came out!  Believe me, none are perfect, but they are for my family so I only really notice.  What other characters would you use for DIY Disney shirts??
If you’d like to see step by step video tutorials on how to cut, weed, and iron on HTV click here!

If you’re going to Florida, be prepared to be hot and sweaty, but it’s tons of fun!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!  Let me know if you have any questions!