DIY Lilo & Stitch Costume

With April 30th passing recently, it reminded me it’s the half-way point to Halloween! One of my favorite times of year! I have a special tutorial to share with you.  I’ll show you how to make a DIY Lilo & Stitch Costume. I made my daughter K a SUPER cute Lilo and Stitch costume last Halloween and it was a super success! We always wait until the last weekend or minute to make or buy a costume. This time I made up my mind to make one that I can share and help other moms out like me make a super cute and easy costume. If you make this costume, I’m assuming you have a Stitch stuffed animal as your companion. You don’t really have to, but it makes the costume complete.

We are Disney fanatics. We have an overabundance of souvenirs! We were still on our high from our summer trip to Walt Disney World in Florida and couldn’t stop talking about how fun Stitch’s Great Escape was. Some people don’t like that ride, but my daughter and I thought it was cute! She LOVES Stitch, we bought him at Disney world and we watch the movies way too often in our home. So, K decided she wanted to be Lilo. Naturally, it was because this project was the easiest and would only take me a couple of hours it was a great fit for me! I couldn’t find anything online with the right size flowers for Lilo’s shirt. So, I made my own! You can download the flower file I made too! All I did was go to Michaels and buy a red t-shirt in my daughter’s size and white glow in the dark transfer paper from Jolee’s. That was actually an accident that I bought glow in the dark iron on transfer sheets. I meant to buy just the white transfer sheets for dark fabrics. But it ended up being pretty cool because my daughter wears the shirt as a sleep shirt now and the leaves glow in the dark.

I will make this as easy as possible. As long as you’re somewhat crafty, you can totally do this project. Adults should only be doing this project because of the hot iron  – kids only under strict adult supervision. I left a very light line on the leaves so when it prints, you’ll be able to see where to cut. Make sure you have a secure table to work on that you can spread your items out on. I have a wood table that I use for letterpress papers and other things like that and that worked great for this project.

Step 1: Gather your supplies for  your DIY Lilo & Stitch Costume

• 1 red shirt (wash and dry before starting the project)
• 1 package of printable iron-on transfer paper (this is the one I bought)
• 1 pair of scissors
• 1 iron
• 1 decent printer (I used my Canon PIXMA)

Step 2: Prepare your workspace

• Download the leaf file – Click to Download the Lilo Leaf Template
• Lay out your shirt
• Get your iron out and preheat
• Print your leaf template. I used the 3 sheets that came in the pack and then cut them out by hand with a good pair of sharp scissors.
  •  Load the sheet into your printer so that it will print on the NON-GLOSSY UNLINED side.
  • DO NOT mirror or flip image prior to printing. Image will not transfer correctly onto fabric if mirrored before printing.

Step 3: Make that shirt!

• Lay out your leaves on the shirt to get an idea of how you want to position them. You can see from my pictures how I did mine.
• Peel the backing of each leave one at time and follow the package directions for ironing them on the shirt. They include parchment paper to place over the iron-on and make sure you press down firmly and totally follow the package instructions. When you lift the parchemnt paper up, you’ll be able to see if your iron-on is adhering properly to the shirt.
• Continue the same process for each leaf and then let it cool off before wearing.

If you’re wondering where K’s hair clip came from. All you need to do is buy a fake tropical flower, green duct tape and a pack of flat alligator clips from Michael’s. I just cut the flower so it would fit the clip and used the duct tape to adhere it to the clip and voila. You have a close to what Lilo wore hair clip. We literally couldn’t find anything that was a perfect match so we just made the cutest tropical flower we could find work.

Now you will have a super cute and EASY to make Lilo and Stitch Costume for Halloween! And make sure you get an oversized shirt, it’ll make a great nightshirt! Just make sure you hang it to dry or the leaves may peel off. Don’t forget to download the Lilo leaf file! – Click to Download the Lilo Leaf Template.

Use the hashtag #designeditgirl on Instagram to show me your DIY Lilo & Stitch Costume! I’d love to see what you made!!