MCM Outfit (Friday Five Edition)

The Marine Corps Marathon is this weekend.  My race day outfit is always a thought process.  A destination race is a little harder to plan.  I've done a lot of Disney races and there dressing up is not only allowed, but encouraged.  But this is the Marines.  Even though the race is the day before Halloween, I really didn't want to dress up, but I wanted a patriotic themed my outfit.  This was my thought process of my outfit.

1. Skirt - I love wearing skirts to races.  I have issues with the skirts that come with built in shorts because the shorts never fit me right and I get chafed everywhere (sounds familiar with my latest bout of finding new shorts).  I have found a company on Amazon called CowCow that has a lot of really cute skater skirts.  They have a lot of great designs and are very comfortable and long enough to cover up my shorts.  The only issue with them is that they are based out of Hong Kong and it takes forever to get your package shipped.  So this is something that has to be planned on at least a month in advance.

2. Shirt - I wanted to get a plain red tech shirt that I could do a design on.  Easy enough to get one local or online.  I never thought it would be easy to make my own shirt.  I was always in awe of those who did because I'm just not a crafty person.  After different discussions with Meranda who has done many super cute shirts herself, I learned it really wasn't that hard.

3. Design - Now to come up with the design.  I scoured the internet for the perfect image or saying that would mean something to the Marines and the marathon.  I found the saying "Charge the District, Beat the Bridge, Take the Iow" on the MCM website and knew that was the saying I wanted to use.  I found some images online to go with the saying.  I used a Photoshop type software to put everything together.

At the last minute I thought I wanted something on the front.  I found the Marine Corps image and added my name and MCM 2016.

4. Transfers - This is were the easy part of creating your own shirt comes from.  I purchased some transfers for light fabric.  I've tried the transfers for dark fabric before and it really didn't turn out well.  I think this is because most of the designs I've done were mostly black outlines and black text.  The trick with using transfers for light fabric is that you have to flip the image horizontally (best to print everything out on paper first so you don't waste the transfer paper).  Once your image is printed out you just iron it onto your shirt.

5. Headband - I currently don't have a patriotic headband for running.  Not sure why as I can use it around Memorial Day and 4th of July.  But since it is Halloween weekend, I thought I would break the patriotic theme and wear one of my Halloween headbands.  I don't know which one yet, and probably will decide race morning.

So here is the first sneak peak of my outfit.

So remember to follow me on Twitter - @heatherlas and Instagram - @heathersspin as I will be posting throughout the weekend.  And maybe even during the race.

Have you ever designed and made your own shirt?  Do you like to dress up for races?  What's the most extravagant outfit that you have worn for a race?   

I'm linking up with Fairytales and Fitness and Running on Happy for Friday Five 2.0