Make Disney Family Shirts for Halloween

There’s something extra special about heading to Disneyland or DisneyWorld with fresh Disney family shirts! Check out this unique tutorial for Halloween Disney shirts – it’s quick, easy to make, and fun to wear.

Whenever we head to Disney, I love getting creative and making some fresh Disney family shirts!

And if there’s a holiday coming up, I especially enjoy dreaming up some new festive ideas like these Disney Halloween shirts.

These two shirts started out as one plain white and one plain black tee, and it’s so fun to see how far you can push those simple materials with a little DIY magic.

Making Disney Family Shirts

This isn’t my first time making Disney family shirts! In fact, I’ve shared tutorials here before. Did you see these?

Two Cute Shirt Ideas for Your Next Disneyland Trip

Those have a very different vibe than our Disney Halloween shirts here, but they’re great for any Disney day! Be sure to pin those so you don’t lose track of them.

Hey! If you’re into Disneyland, you don’t want to miss my free Disneyland Resort Guide, below! It’s filled with some of my very best insider tips — as a former cast member and Disneyland dancer, I have some inside scoop to help you plan your most magical trip ever.

More Ideas for a Perfect Disney Day

And since I’m sharing ideas, I wanted to share some of my most useful Disneyland tips. As a former cast member (did you know I used to be a dancer in the Disneyland parades?) and a lifelong Disneyland fan, I have a lot of tricks and hacks to share.

And for the last 6 years we’ve been visiting the parks with kids, so I always like to help other parents or caregivers make their Disney days as easy and magical as possible.

• Essential Disneyland Food You Should Try
• How to Go to Disneyland On a Budget
• What to Pack for Disneyland
• How to Make the Most of Disneyland Annual Passes
• Our Best Secret Disneyland Tips and Hacks
• How to Take Awesome Disneyland Family Photos
• How to do Disneyland with a Baby and a Toddler

Techniques Used in These Disney Halloween Shirts

Because these two shirts started as a plain black tee and a plain white tee, there were lots of options of techniques to dress them up with DIY.

Here’s a basic rundown of the techniques used on each shirt.

Black Shirt. To create the grey and black look, I did a reverse tie dye treatment using plain bleach. Once the reverse tie dye was completed, I used a Cricut machine to cut a design out of iron-on (also known as heat transfer) vinyl, and applied the Jack Skellington design.

White Shirt. To achieve the orange shirt, I used traditional tie dye on a white t-shirt. Then I used a Cricut machine to cut out a design using Infusible Ink (also known as sublimation), and applied the skeleton design.

One thing to note — you can do either of these DIYs with iron-on vinyl. I just happened to have some black Infusible Ink paper that I wanted to try over a tie-dyed shirt to see if it would work.

However, you could create the skeleton design out of black (or your preferred color) iron-on vinyl and it would work just as well. You would end up with a different feel, as the vinyl rests on top of the fabric, while the Infusible Ink sinks down into the fibers.

Other Cricut Ideas

Nope, this post isn’t sponsored by Cricut, but if you’ve been around Lovely Indeed for a while, you know how much I love and use my Cricut machines for everyday crafting projects like these.

So in case you’re curious (and very many people are!) about Cricut, here are some posts in a deep-dive series I created earlier this year:

• What is a Cricut Machine And What Does It Do?
• How Much is a Cricut Machine (And Will I Use it Enough to Justify the Cost)?
• Three Easy Cricut Projects for Beginners
• How to Make Money with Cricut
• Harry Potter School Supplies // Personalize Back to School with Cricut
• How to Make Wooden Wick Candles with Custom Labels Using Cricut
• DIY Shirts + Coasters

Supplies You’ll Need to Make a Halloween Disneyland T-Shirt

So let’s talk supplies! Here’s what you’ll need to make the Jack Skellington Disney Halloween shirt:

• plain black cotton t-shirt
• gloves
• bleach
• rubber bands
• plastic bag
• design file for Jack Skellington
• Cricut Machine
• iron-on vinyl
• iron

And here’s what you’ll need for the skeleton shirt:

• plain white cotton shirt
• gloves
• orange tie dye
• rubber bands
• plastic bag
• design file for skeleton
• Cricut Machine
• black Infusible Ink or black iron-on vinyl
• iron or Easy Press

How to Make FAmily Disney Shirts for halloween

Let’s make some!

1. First, prep your shirts. I recommend washing shirts before tie dyeing or reverse tie dyeing, as I feel that the results turn out more vibrant and clear. Once your shirts are washed, leave them wet. Lay them flat and then bunch and crumple them into a small ball, securing around with rubber bands. Put on protective gloves.
2. For the reverse tie dye shirt, gently pour 1/2 cup of bleach over one side of the balled up shirt. Then flip it over and pour another 1/2 cup. Place the shirt inside a plastic bag and seal.
3. For the tie dye shirt, apply the orange dye in the same manner as the bleach to the white shirt. Place inside a plastic bag and seal.
4. After 5-6 hours, remove the shirts from the bag, rinse all extra bleach or dye from them by running them under cold water. Once the water runs clear, wash the shirts again on warm. Dry as usual.
5. While the shirts are drying, start prepping your iron-on designs. If you’re not a designer, I recommend searching Etsy for svg designs that you can purchase for nominal fee. Otherwise, you can create your own designs. Cut your designs out of the appropriate material on your Cricut. (Note: you’ll need to reverse/mirror anything you cut out of Infusible Ink. Once cut, weed out any excess vinyl or paper.
6. Once the shirts are dry, use an iron or Easy Press to apply your designs to the shirt. If you don’t know the proper settings for your Easy Press, you can find all of that information here.

Hope you love these fun Disney Halloween shirts! If you try our DIY we’d love for you to rate it below. Happy making! xoxo