This past Friday night, we went to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. If you haven’t been before, it’s so much fun, and an awesome way to spend the evening at Magic Kingdom without the crazy crowds and the hot Florida sun. As an added bonus, everyone comes in costume, and trick-or-treats around the park. When we decided to go this year, I was conflicted between wanting to make an all-out exact-to-the-last-detail costume, and knowing that I was also going to be spending 8+ hours walking around and waiting in lines and riding rides. While I absolutely loved getting to see the costumes of the people who did go all-out, I was beyond thrilled with our Incredibles outfits. The practical side of me (and my husband) won out, so we chose costumes that were both semi-accurate and comfortable.

When researching how to make our shirts, I knew I wanted to get dri-fit style athletic shirts, which would dry easily if it rained (it did) and were designed to keep you cool (since it was still almost 80°F/27°C after the sun went down). I couldn’t find anything about attaching iron-ons to these types of shirts, so I was a little nervous, but went for it anyways. Our shirts were Under Armour’s HeatGear 100% Polyester shirts (similar to Nike Dri-FIT, but available in Incredibles red), and the iron-on logos were purchased on Etsy from TuLa-La.

Other than the shirts and iron-ons, I had an iron, parchment paper, pillowcases, and a wooden coffee table. It was important to use a flat, hard, heat resistant surface, and because the iron was used without steam (very important!) it was fine to use the coffee table. The pillowcases added an extra layer of protection on top of the coffee table, and helped the shirts stay in place.

Once the pillowcases were ironed and laid flat on the coffee table, I set up the shirts, making sure to lay them without any wrinkles. 100% Polyester shirts like this are not supposed to be ironed, so I didn’t iron any part of them that wasn’t protected by the parchment paper. I used the iron on medium high heat, without any steam. The parchment paper went both on top of the iron-on decal and inside the shirt, directly behind the decal. Once laid out and triple checked that there were no wrinkles and the placement of the logos was good, I slowly ironed the logos, not letting the iron touch any of the shirt outside of the parchment paper, continually moving the iron in circular motions, until the entire logo had been covered by the iron for about a minute.

Then, because I was paranoid and wanted to make sure they were really attached, I ironed them again. So, I ironed each shirt twice for about a minute each, with a several minute break before the second ironing. Then I let the shirts sit until they were all the way cooled down before removing the parchment paper.

Just in case they didn’t last, I didn’t wash them until after we wore them to the party, but they looked perfect all night and the exact same when I pulled them out of the dryer yesterday. I washed them by themselves to make sure the color didn’t run and stain anything else, and washed them inside out, washing on cold and drying on hot. From now on, I’ll continue to wash them inside out, but feel safe adding them in with other clothing. All in all, I am just crazy about them. They were so easy to make, and looked so good after they were done. I was even asked by someone at the park if I had them custom ordered! So, it is possible, you can attach iron-ons to athletic shirts. Incredible!