How To Make Mickey Mouse Tie Dye Shirts

Make your own Mickey Mouse tie dye shirt! If you love Disney or are going to visit a Disney park then you’ll definitely need to make these Mickey Mouse tie dye shirt. Kids of all ages will love these shirts, but to make them this Mickey Mouse tie dye craft is best for older kids. This is a fun tie dye craft you can do at home!

Mickey Mouse Tie Dye Shirt Craft

Planning a trip to a Disney Park? Make a set of these Mickey Head Tie Dye shirts for your whole group & stand out from the crowd! This fun project will make for some wonderful photos at the parks as well.

Related: Check out this easy and colorful sugar tie dye technique for t-shirts!

Now…onto the fun part! Here’s how to make your tie dye shirts:

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Supplies you will need To Make These Awesome Mickey Mouse Tie Dye Shirts

Directions To Tie Dye Mickey Mouse T-Shirts

Step 1

Trace your Mickey head pattern on the tshirt with a pencil.

Step 2

Use a basting stitch & sew around your traced Mickey head with the dental floss. A basting stitch is just up-down-up-down-up-down. Super easy! Be sure to leave about 4″ of string hanging out when you begin, because you will pull the two ends together for the next step.

Step 3

Pull strings tight so Mickey is puckered & tie floss in a knot.

Step 4

Use rubber bands & band the area below Mickey’s head tightly. You want your rubber bands to create about an inch-long border.

Step 5

Soak shirt in Soda Ash for 20 minutes. Remove & wring out.

Step 6

Lay shirt flat on a table with Mickey’s head pointing up.

Step 7

Using your puckered Mickey head, grab about where the rubber bands are & start twisting. Keep going until you end up with a “danish” roll shape. It’s OK if it’s not perfect or if little parts are sticking out. Just tuck them in…

Step 8

Using 4 rubber bands, create pie sections on your tshirt danish. When it’s time to dye, you’ll alternate colors in the sections.

Step 9

Pull Mickey’s head up through the rubber bands in the middle so his head is sticking out above the danish.

Step 10

Lean your shirt over a sink, so that Mickey’s head isn’t touching any other part of the shirt.

Step 11

Saturate the head until it’s dripping, then cover that part with plastic wrap. You may end up with a spot or two of dye on the shirt, but try to keep Mickey’s Head color away from the rest of the shirt.

Step 12

Dye the rest of your shirt. Using two or three complementary colors, dye alternating sections of your “danish pie”.

Tie Dye Tip

You want to over saturate your shirt. Dripping. More dye than you think you possibly need. You think you’ve done enough? Do a little more. Bury the nose of your squirt bottle down into the creases & give a huge squeeze.   If you don’t use enough dye, you will have a lot of white on your shirt & your tie dye pattern  won’t be as striking. The first time I made ours, I thought I was going to end up with a big blob of blurred colors because “How could I possibly need this much dye!”. Just trust me. Go very heavy handed with the dye.

Step 13

Wrap the whole drippy thing in plastic wrap & let sit overnight. Laugh at your purple/blue/green/red hands.

Next Day: Instructions For Tie Dye Mickey Mouse Craft

Step 14

Unwrap your shirt ball & cut off all  the rubber bands. Rinse in cold water until no more dye comes out. This may take a little while!

Step 15

Snip the dental floss & pull out of the shirt.

Step 16

Run shirt through a cold cycle in the washing machine.

Final Results- Check Out Our Tie Dye Mickey Mouse Shirts!

Check out the final results!

Here’s the back:

I have also considered putting little rhinestones around the Mickey head for a girl’s shirt. I don’t think my son would appreciate that though…

Some Great Tips For Making Your Mickey Mouse Tie Dye Shirt

A few tips before you begin:

1. Choose t-shirts that are 100% cotton. Synthetic blend shirts will not hold the color well.
2. Be sure to include the Soda Ash step indicated below even if the brand of dye you choose doesn’t say to use it. The Soda Ash helps set the colors.
3. You don’t have to spend a fortune on dye. There are numerous dye choices online & they all proclaim to offer the best, professional dye jobs.  We have always used Tulip brand dye because it’s what I could find at Hobby Lobby. I was worried that buying a “craft” brand of dye would result in less bold colors, but as you can see in the photo above, that’s not the case!
4. Ignore the number of shirts your dye packet says it will make.   You will need more dye for this project. Assuming you are using two colors for your swirl, 1 bottle of each dye color will do about two adult shirts, OR 3-4 children’s shirts. For Mickey’s head, you will just need 1 bottle of dye for all of your shirts since it’s such a small part of the shirt.
5. Don’t limit yourself to a white t-shirt as your starting point! I saw an adorable Mickey Head Tie Dye shirt that started out as a baby blue t-shirt & they used a royal blue dye with a dark red Mickey head (head was a dark shade of purple because blue shirt + red dye=purple!).
6. Buy a little more dye than you think you’ll need. The first time I made a set of shirts, I ended up running back to the craft store with purple fingers because I ran out. You can always return any unused dye.
7. VERY IMPORTANT: When choosing your color palate, think of the color wheel & choose accordingly! If you choose red & green for your swirls, consider what mixing  those colors  will give you….BROWN. Any place they overlap, you’ll end up with muddy colors. I would suggest sticking with colors you know mix well (yellow & red, blue & red, yellow & blue, etc). For the shirts above, I used two shades of blue for the swirls (turquoise & royal blue) and fuchia for the head. Black dye does not produce a strong black color & I would suggest staying away from it.

More Tie Dye Crafts From Kids Activities Blog

Let us know if you make a Mickey Head Tie Dye shirt! Think of other shapes you could use as well. My next project will be using a cross!