Disney Characters Autographing Stuff?

I have a question based on an idea my friend and I had regarding meeting characters on our upcoming trip to Disneyland this August. We thought it might be cool to have the Disney Characters sign store bought t-shirts rather than in an autograph book (figured getting them to sign a tee was "cooler" for us big kids ;)). Do they do this or have any problems doing this?

We plan to visit a couple character dining places such as Goofy's Kitchen and the Plaza Inn for Breakfast, as well as maybe hit-up a few meet and greet spots at the Disneyland Resort theme parks themselves. I just want to be sure that if we hand a character a t-shirt and a sharpie marking pen that they will go ahead with signing it and we won't be stopped by their handlers.

Thanks for any help! :mickey2:

They will sign most anything, but I don't believe they'll sign a shirt while you're wearing it. But if you just brought it up to them they'll sign it.

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Originally Posted by Strmchsr

They will sign most anything, but I don't believe they'll sign a shirt while you're wearing it. But if you just brought it up to them they'll sign it.

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Thanks for the timely response Strmchsr! Yeah, we weren't going to put them on and have them write on us. :haha: We probably will just have them folded to the section of the shirt we want written on a clipboard that we'd store in our backbacks or something. That way they will have a hard surface to write on, gotta think of the characters too!

Does anybody know of any good shirt brands for writting on? ;)

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Originally Posted by Disney Connoisseur

Yeah, we weren't going to put them on and have them write on us. :haha:

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You'd be surprised how many times I've seen people asking for that!

My friends that have done something similar have had good luck with plain Haines undershirts. White usually shows up best, obviously.

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Originally Posted by Strmchsr

My friends that have done something similar have had good luck with plain Haines undershirts. White usually shows up best, obviously.

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Any ideas besides Sharpies for the characters to use when signing? I just realized if we use a Sharpie we will never be able to wash the shirts or else the ink will smudge/come off. Are there any markers *made* for this sort of thing? :confused:

There are specially made "fabric markers" for this kind of thing. Most of the craft stores (Hobby Lobby, Michael's) carry those. You can also look on Amazon. Use the link under ICOT Affiliates to make sure Intercot gets credit for the sponsorship.

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Originally Posted by Strmchsr

There are specially made "fabric markers" for this kind of thing.

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Are the fabric markers equally as easy for the characters to hold and write with as regular pens/markers? Also, I just thought of something else that may be a problem. The shirts may bunch up as the character signs it and will cause for screw-ups and other difficulties. Any ideas on how to avoid this from happening? I was thinking maybe getting chip clips to clip the section of the t-shirt to the clipboard? Any ideas?

Using clips for the clipboards has worked well the one or two times I've seen folks do that.

The fabric markers I've seen come in a lot of different sizes, so you can find one that the characters can hold without a problem.

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Originally Posted by Strmchsr

The fabric markers I've seen come in a lot of different sizes, so you can find one that the characters can hold without a problem.

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Which would be the most optimal? Larger or smaller markers? I'd think the larger (not huge) would be easier to hold but I could be wrong. What do you think?

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Originally Posted by Disney Connoisseur

Which would be the most optimal? Larger or smaller markers? I'd think the larger (not huge) would be easier to hold but I could be wrong. What do you think?

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Yeah, I would think a medium or larger size would be easier for the characters.

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Originally Posted by Strmchsr

Yeah, I would think a medium or larger size would be easier for the characters.

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Thanks again for all your input!

Alright, so. I just received a pack of white Hanes (as suggested) t-shirts and some Sharpie brand fabric pens. There were Crayola ones available but they had a more limited amount of colors and were made for use primarily on darker colored shirts. They also needed to be heat treated and the Sharpie ones did not. Upon recieving them, we tested each color a little bit on one of my old white shirts.

We were impressed with the vibrant markings of the darker colors but naturally, the lighter colors like yellow and orange didn't show up well on the white shirt. I was thinking to have the color of pens match the character's colors but I don't think I would be able to read Pluto's name if he were to sign in yellow! This is probably where the Crayola markers have the advantage of being used on a darker colored shirt.

One of the more important things I noticed was without a hard surface, it is extremely difficult to write anything legible on the shirts as the fabric keeps bunching up and there is no firmness to press down on. This could be a big problem when at the parks. I know we discussed the possibility of using clipboards with chip clips on the edges pulling the fabric tight -- which may work, at least better than if there wasn't anything. Pulling the fabric tight allows for the ease of using the pen without making mistakes.

We would also need to have the shirt only be one layer of fabric thick on the clipboard when they are signing on it because the firmer the surface, the better. I just am wondering how I can manage the overhang on the sections of the shirt that aren't "spread/clipped" on the clipboard.

Are the characters very skilled when it comes to this type of thing? Would they know to pull-tight on the fabric themselves? I can just imagine the horror-show of them trying to manage this sort of stuff with their big gloves, paws, hands, etc. I am just trying to prepare properly so mistakes aren't made on our shirts. Does anybody have any better or other ideas for this kind of thing at the parks?

Maybe an embroidery hoop would work (because depending on the character, they may need help pulling the shirt tight)

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Originally Posted by joanna71985

Maybe an embroidery hoop would work (because depending on the character, they may need help pulling the shirt tight)

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This may work! I'll look into this, for sure.