Handmade Baby Clothes: Inspired Onesie

Welcome to Day 22 of the Handmade Baby Clothes onesie month.  Today’s design was inspired by a picture of a dress on the internet that I thought was BEAUTIFUL.  I say inspired because the initial dress and the final product look VERY different.  I saw it again the other day and thought: hmm, how could that inspire a onesie design?  Well, it did.  This post is about that onesie.

(The Folk Butterfly Dress by Tea Pony)

What you will need:

• plain, prewashed onesie
• fabric marking pencil
• two squares of coordinating fabric (mine were approximately 10″ by 5″)
• sewing machine with coordinating thread
• pins
• fabric scissors
• pre-washed ribbon the width of the onesie, about 10″
• optional: 10″ of ric-rac

First, I cut out two equal rectangles from my fabric.

Then I ironed them, folding the long edges over twice and ironing them down.

Tip: Use a piece of chipboard (paperboard) to help make your folded edges straight while ironing  a stretchy knit material.

Then I sewed them down. (Straight stitch)

Back to the original onesie.  After marking a line at the bottom of the arm holes across the front and back of the onesie, I cut off the sleeves.

Then I cut off the back part of the onesie from the line – up.  (Whoa, Erin, what are you doing??!)

Next with RIGHT sides together, I sewed the rectangles to the newly cut edge in the back. First the pins…

Then the zig and the zag.

Then I wrapped those rectangles around over the shoulder, and lined them up with the line drawn on the front.

Sewed it down with a zig and a zag…

… and stitched the front of the onesie to the newly formed front “V.”  This secures the front of the original onesie to the newly added fabric.

Next in preparation for the ribbon across the front to cover the unfinished edge and the  zig-zag stitching, I dressed up my ribbon with a little bit of ric-rac.

I folded the ends under, pinned it in place, and top-stitched all around to secure the ribbon.

Voila!

Le front:

Le side:

Le back:

No one will confuse this with the Folk Butterfly Dress, but isn’t it amazing where inspiration will lead you?

Fin.

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