Getting Crafty: Decorated Onesies

In the class I taught to expectant parents, we gave out an awesome gift bag.  In it, there were lots of baby essentials like a hooded towel, little mittens, a crib sheet, and even some Gerber onesies.  Blank, all white onesies in 6-9 month size, to be precise.  Since I forced my husband to come to my class when I was pregnant (yes, he sat there and watched me teach!), we also got a bag.  Now what to do with those boring onesies?  Let's decorate!

I got a set of fabric markers to do some drawing, and I also got some fusible backing for some fabric applique stuff.

I bought 5 yards of the Wonder-Under backing.  I think it was a bit overboard!

Here's what I came up with:

Okay, that's more than 5.  I was having so much fun I went out and bought a pack of 12-month size ones!

I had some fabric scraps around the house, including the Georgia fabirc.  I also checked the remnants and quilter's bundles at the fabric store to add to my stash.

The fusible backing is supposed to "glue" the fabrics together with just an iron, but I soon found out that it depended a lot on the fabric itself.  The UGA fabric was a thicker type and kept peeling up in the corners.  My mom was in town during this, so she hand-sewed around the designs to keep them on.  If anything, the fusible backing kept it in place for that, so it was still worth it.

The "UGA" one was done with template I created in Powerpoint.  I just wrote what I wanted and blew it up to about 150-pt font.  The onesies are about the same width of a piece of paper, so that made it easy to determine sizing.  I printed out the page, then cut out the letters.  I then flipped them over and traced them onto the back side of the fabric that had the backing on it already.

After cutting out the letters from the fabric, you just peel a layer away from the backing and it's ready to iron.

The fabric pens were soooo easy!  And so much better than using puff paint.  I had seen the "I'm acute baby" onesie online at some point and thought, "Why should I pay $15 for that?!"  It was almost too easy.  I used a blue washout marking pencil (an essential in any sewing kit) to sketch the design on and then just traced over it with a piece of cardboard underneath the top layer.  I printed out the other designs and eyeballed them.  (I probably should have traced the ND shamrock, but oh well.)  I think the robot is my favorite; I found it by searching Etsy for "robot" and then finding one I could easily draw.  I'm planning on doing one with momma and baby owls, but this has proved much more challenging due to my lack of drawing skills and the intricacy of owl designs.  It's also insanely easier to draw straight lines on fabric, I've found out.

If I ever have to plan someone's baby shower, we are definitely doing this!  But as I've found out, it's still fun to do even after the baby comes.  Baby can wear it immediately, so you even get instant gratification!

Oh, did I forget to mention that I put something on the back of the UGA bunting one?

My future bulldog!