Remember in grade school when that particular clothing item was absolutely the coolest thing ever, and everyone who was anyone HAD to have one? I remember the butterfly hair clip phase – those clips with glittery butterfly wings attached on springs, so they looked like they were fluttering. Everyone was wearing them. I had a light pink pair, and they were perfection.
FYI, the must-have item for your little one today is an embroidered onesie. All the cool kids are wearing them.
And the best part – you can DIY one, using all those onesies in excellent condition that you picked up at Goodwill, or were hand-me downs from your friend’s kids. You know, the ones that are perfectly fine on their own, but with a little stitching, go from “meh” to the envy of all the other infants in their puppy and dinosaur onesies at the mall – or pediatrician’s office.
Ok, so maybe I made that up about embroidery being a big trend, although I have seen it around, but it should be, because it’s easy, and really does look awesome. And there’s so many cute and funny onesies I’ve seen around that I want to buy, but they cost around $25 each. This way, I can up-cycle what I have and add the extra cute factor.
You’ll need:
- Ordinary onesies
- Embroidery floss
- Embroidery needle
- Embroidery hoop
- Something to draw your design with. I use a washable fabric marker or even a pencil, since it washes out and even erases from the fabric sometimes.
- Endless ideas for cute designs
I started with a hipster anchor and compass design. While I liked the color combo, it didn’t pop enough, so in the final version of this one, I added some red floss too.
Most of my designs used a simple back-stitch. The most challenging one was the baseball onesie. This one used a modified blanket stitch. If you’d like to replicate it, here’s how:
Go up through your fabric, leaving space for the “Y” shape of the stitch.
Then poke down at an angle, trapping the thread underneath the needle, like the photo above shows. Then pull it through, like the photo below:
Then stitch down to make the stem of the “Y” shape. This will join the “Y’s” together.
If it’s confusing from the pictures, try watching youtube videos of the blanket stitch. You’re just modifying the shape so that instead of going at a right angle, you’re creating the “Y” shape.
For this one, I sketched the design using the fabric maker. I wasn’t concerned about making the letters perfect; I like the hand-written look.
I was sorely tempted to do something Harry Potter themed for this lightening bolt one, but I was afraid the blue would pre-condition him to favor Ravenclaw. So instead, I went with “So Rad” in bubble letters for a little hipster throwback to the 80’s.
Edison approves. And he’s definitely cool.
