Tutorials

So, did you figure out my obvious hint yesterday?! Yep, on Thursday afternoon, GJ and I loaded up the boys and took them to Walt Disney World! It’s about a 3 hour drive from Naples to Orlando. Once again, I was hoping for naps in the car. This happened for about 20 minutes…

maxwell and spencer

The rest of the trip was spent with me sitting between them in the backseat trying to keep Spencer from crying, changing episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the ipad for Maxwell, and listening in on a conference call for work while trying to take notes. No one can multi-task like a momma!! 🙂 But, we made it and I was so happy to be at the Grand Floridian! I have so many memories of this place. I’m not sure who was more excited about the trip – the boys or me and GJ!

elevator life

That night, we got ready for bed and I had some new fun pj’s for the boys! Woody and Buzz!! too cute!

woody and buzz

We all 4 stayed in one room together. Even though we had a crib for Maxwell, I gave him the choice to sleep in it or to sleep in the double bed with me. Not surprising, he chose to sleep with me. While I can’t say I got much sleep AT ALL the two nights we were there, I did have one happy little boy! He slept great – I slept about 3 non-consecutive total hours while being punched in the face, kicked in the ribs and pushed to the edge of the bed. I wouldn’t have had it any other way, especially after he said “snuggle wif me momma” on Thursday night. The next day, GJ asked him what his favorite part of the hotel was and he said “sleepin in da bed wif momma!” melt. my. heart. I can also report that Maxwell snores. lovely.

Anyway! We started Friday with a proper Disney breakfast…

mickey waffles

and then hit up the Magic Kingdom!

disney

We were only doing Disney for a day so just stayed around Main St. and Fantasy Land. There was plenty to keep Maxwell occupied! First stop – meet the Mouse! Maxwell was super excited to meet Mickey but then kinda froze up when we got in front of him.

mickey

Spencer on the other hand loved all the characters!

mickey

Next stop? the Carousel!

carousel

After that we headed into the newly renovated Fantasy Land and stopped off at Dumbo. They have a new feature where they have an indoor playground area inside that you can play in while waiting for your turn to ride. It was cool…and air conditioned!

dumbo

We then hopped on the elephants…the orange one of course! 🙂

dumbo

Next we went to meet Goofy and Donald. Maxwell was SO excited to meet Goofy…until we actually met Goofy! In his defense, Goofy is pretty big and overwhelming!

goofy

No love for the Goof.

goofy

Maxwell opted out of saying hi to Donald but Spencer was all about it!

donald

We then decided to just wave at Minnie instead of standing in line to actually meet her.

minnie

After the ~~trauma~~ fun of seeing Goofy and Donald, we needed a little cookie break!

cookie break

Maxwell loves riding trains so we rode the train that goes all around the perimeter of the park. Good thing we did too because when we stopped in Frontier Land, guess who we got to see?

woody and jessie

Woody and Jessie! Yippee Yi Yo!

While on Dumbo, Maxwell had noticed the new “kiddie” roller coaster, the Barnstormer, and wanted to ride it. I was hoping he wouldn’t be tall enough but, he was so we got some fast passes and then went into the 3D “Mickey’s PhilharMagic” movie to wait until it was time to ride. I was really unsure about how Maxwell would do on the roller coaster but there was only one way to find out! Here we go…ready or not!

roller coaster

He LOVED it! Smiled the whole time! Loved it so much that we got off and rode it again!! The second time I took video of it to send to Robert..

I think he’s gonna be a roller coaster lover like his momma! 🙂

After the roller coaster, it looked like the rain was moving in. We got SO lucky and didn’t get rained on once even though the forecast had shown a wash-out just a day before. Besides, Spencer was starting to get red and hot…

spencer

Sweet baby. We decided it was best to head back to the hotel for lunch and rest. It was a FULL and FUN morning at the Magic Kingdom. This picture pretty much sums it all up…

magic kingdom

ha! tomorrow – our dinner with Mickey and friends!

Who’s feeling crafty?! I’ve shown you all a few of the applique t-shirts that I’ve made for Maxwell and some (ok, two) of you were interested in how I made them. So, when I made a shirt for him last weekend and took pictures of the process. Hope you guys find it helpful!

What you’ll need:

T-shirt – Any kind without a pocket. My favorites are from Old Navy but you can find good ones at Target too.

Fabric – You won’t need much at all for most designs. 1/4 of a yard will be more than enough.

Double Stick Fusible Web – I’ve always used the Steam-A-Seam brand:

Scissors – Good quality applique scissors are really nice to have but any scissors will do.

Pencil, Iron, and Needle & Thread (if you want to stitch around the edges at the end).

Your design – you can hand draw this or find something online to print out/trace. There are tons of great applique patterns you can buy on Etsy too.

This is the design I decided to go with this time:

Alright, let’s BLAST OFF with this applique! 🙂

Step 1: Trace your design. On the Steam-A-Seam, there is one side that is tightly adhered to the sheet and one side that comes off pretty easily. You want to trace your design with a pencil onto the side that is tightly adhered.

* I have found it easier to trace the design if it is originally drawn in black Sharpie.

* If you are using letters or want your design to point a certain way, make sure to reverse your design so that the letter/design is facing the right way when on the shirt.

* You must trace each part of the design individually. For example, in the rocket-ship, there are 5 different parts to trace:

(I had not yet traced the circle). I want each of these parts to be in a different fabric so I needed them to be separate so I can layer them on the shirt.

Step 2: Iron the design onto the fabric. Cut around each design so they are separate and cut pieces of fabric to fit each shape.

Peel off the side that is easily removable (and does not have your design traced on it) and iron that onto the BACK SIDE of your fabric. I usually heat my fabric up with the iron first and then carefully place the design on. Then just move your iron over the design for a few seconds and, voila!, it’s attached!

Step 3: Cut out your design/fabric. After all the shapes are ironed on, carefully cut each shape out. You will be cutting through both the webbing and the fabric. This is where those good scissors come in handy!

Step 4: Iron the design onto your shirt! At this point, you will want to lay your design out on the shirt to get a feel for the layering of the shape as well as placement on the shirt. If it really needs to be centered, you can get a fabric marker and make a little dot in the center of your shirt…but I usually just eyeball it. Once you have an idea of what you want it to look like, iron each piece on. Peel off the webbing on the back side of your fabric (a fingernail is helpful here!)…

Then carefully place it on your shirt, sticky side down. Once you’ve got it where you want it, iron over it for a few seconds and – again – voila! it’s attached! Repeat this step for each layer of your design. In the end, you’ll end up with something like this:

A finished and super-cute (if I do say so myself!) shirt!

Step 5: Stitch around the design. To make the shirt look more “finished” I like to stitch around the edge of the design using either matching or contrasting thread. I just hand stitch. If I ever take the time to re-learn how to use my sewing machine then I think it would look even better to zig-zag around the edges. But, hand stitching works just fine for now!

Completed project all stitched up!

Ta da!!

Final and Most Important Step: Snap a photo of your model wearing your awesome creation!

Here are some of the other shirts I’ve made…

So far they’ve held up pretty well. I usually wash them inside out, lay them flat to dry and then use a warm iron on them.

Let me know if you have any questions! Now, go get crafty! 🙂

WDW!!

Applique Tutorial