One of our most favorite vacation spots is Walt Disney World in Orlando. My kiddos loved dressing up as characters on our visits but hated the itchy, hot, and uncomfortable costumes available at stores. My remedy for that was to make costumes for them to wear. Unfortunately, I struggle with sewing. Fortunately, my mother in law does not. She is very talented at sewing and gladly accepted the challenges of making Disney-themed costumes. The first one we collaborated to make was a Lilo (from the movie Lilo and Stitch) costume.
My mother in law sewed the dress from red cotton fabric I found at Joann’s craft and fabric store. I then put cardboard on the inside of the dress (to prevent the paint from bleeding through to the other side) and painted white leaves using a stencil I made and white fabric paint. A Cricut machine would be perfect for a project like this. I recently bought one and can’t wait to use it on future costumes.
I found a plumeria-like lei at Party City that closely matched the one Lilo wore. I made a hair clip with a red hibiscus flower I purchased from a craft store. The stuffed animals were souvenirs purchased at Disney. The outfit was such a hit with my little Lilo as well as with park visitors and Cast Members. It was very common for cast members to yell out, “Hey Lilo, where’s Stitch?” My little Lilo was thrilled every single time this happened!
On our next trip to Disney, we planned a breakfast at ‘Ohana at the Polynesian Resort. My little Lilo had outgrown her Lilo dress so I decided to make Lilo t-shirts for both kiddos. I purchased t-shirts from Joann and followed the same process. I made sure to put a piece of cardboard between the two pieces of t-shirt. I used my handy stencil to trace the leaf shape with pencil. It took me several layers of white fabric paint to get the leaf to look opaque. One layer just doesn’t cut it!
The t-shirts were paired with shorts since we were going to be at Magic Kingdom all day. I love putting costumes together. I especially love to come up with outfits for the kids now that they are older. They can still Disney Bound (wear regular/street clothing that follows Disney themes or specific Disney characters). I think a fitted t-shirt painted in the style of the above photo paired with a full volume green skirt (think grass skirt color) would be absolutely adorable!
