Onesies

 I recently came in to a stash of onesies in assorted sizes.  (And by "came into," I mean "ordered from Amazon.com.")

  I have a baby, but he's getting big now, and so the little onesies  have to find new homes.

Lucky for me, some of my friends have recently had babies conveniently sized for my onesies.  How thoughtful!


First, Erin's sweet baby, Ania, finally got a little something from the stash.

This first outfit came from a series of happy accidents.  I've got a bin full of stained, worn-out, and out-grown clothes that I've saved to be upcycled.  This skirt has been in that bin since Grace was little enough to wear it, probably 3 years ago.

Somehow after wearing the skirt only once or twice, my pre-toddler had a run-in with a blue sharpie.  I planned to cover the stains with some kind of design or applique, but I never got around to it, and now she's 4 1/2, and it wouldn't quite be appropriate to squeeze her into a 9 mo skirt.

So, I decided to cut it apart to use the fabric.  My intention was to imitate this shirt, which I found (in royal blue) on the clearance rack at Target.  It was in Grace's (current) size, but at $6, it was more than I usually pay for kids' clothes.  Because (have I mentioned?) I am cheap.   Anyway, I went ahead and bought it.  To copy it.

It may be too small to get a good look at it, but the embellishments are concentric circles of scallop-edged fabric strips.  It's a really pretty effect, and I wanted to see if I could approximate it.  I cut strips with pinking shears and tried sewing them in a tight spiral.  It ended up looking like an awkward rose, but I didn't like the pinked edges.  So I tried the same thing with the finished edge of the skirt.  And I liked it a lot more.

It's not at all what I was going for at first, but it turned out pretty anyway.

All that was left then was to cut out the stained part of the skirt and size it for a 3-month-old.  I stewed forever trying to figure out an easy way to size down the attached britches, and then I realized since it was going over a onesie, it didn't need britches.  Yay!  I love it when the best way is the easy way.So I cut the britches off, brought in the waist, and removed the bottom tier so the skirt was just the right size.  I realize it might be a little weird to give my kid's used clothes as a baby gift.  But the skirt was only gently used before the run in with the sharpie.  And Erin is eco-conscious, so I doubt she minds a little re-purposing. 

On a second onesie, I added a ruffly butt

and a scrap of vintage fabric









And ta daa!  A blurry onesie.



Just kidding.  It's not really blurry in real life.  Just in all the pictures.



So that was two onesies down.  And then, Rozannah had a tiny little peanut, which gave me the chance clear out the rest of the newborn size package.

 

I fancied them up just a bit.    

With embroidered applique.

With lace.

Not shown:  lacy butt.

And with a little iron-on bedazzling.

George was curious, so he thought he'd give cross-dressing a try.

The lace and the applique came from the old lady stash.  I got the iron-on studs in a clearance bin at Wal-Mart a long time ago.  This is the first time I've used them, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, except that some of the coloring on the gold studs came off on the iron and transferred  to the onesie.  It made it look kind of dirty.  Or maybe burned.  (Or maybe I just burned the fabric while putting on the studs? Hmmm.)  In the future, I think I'll use my Silhouette cutter's rhinestone setting templates to arrange the dots, because that was a bit of a pain.  (Quick tip though:  Silhouette sells a fancy tool for picking up and placing rhinestones, which of course I don't own.  So I stuck a little blob of plasti-tac on the end of a seam ripper, and that worked just fine.)  I have lots of studs left, so expect to see them on future projects.

Pretty much everything in this set has to be hand-washed and line dried, so I felt like I needed to apologize for the gift as I was giving it.  Special care clothes are ridiculous for kids!  But at least lil' peanut will grow out of them quickly, so they won't have to be worn & washed very many times.

So that's five onesies down.  Just twelve more to go.