Transform the Norm into Handmade Baby Clothes

Onesies are as essential to babyhood as diapers I suspect.  My daughter has many of them.  Your baby probably does too.  Because she wears hers so often, they get a little used and abused.  You know what I mean.  An example: that _____ (insert food in the blank) got all over her chest because I didn’t remember the bib until it was too late. Then, the stained onesie sat in the laundry for a few days because, well, sometimes that happens.  Then, surprise, surprise, the stain doesn’t come out completely.  Story of my life.  If this sounds like you (please, I can’t be the only one), then this post is for you.  Here’s a way to keep that stained onesie in the rotation: embellish it!

This embellishment technique is super easy, and it will take you less than 30 minutes to complete, so you can reasonably fit it into your busy schedule.

What you will need:

-Scraps of knit fabric (1 fat quarter size is plenty). I used pieces from an old shirt that was headed for goodwill.

-Coordinating thread

-Sewing machine ( this is actually optional, but it makes it faster)

-Fabric scissors

-Fabric marker

Let’s Begin!

Cut 3 roughly equal size squares of fabric. 3″x3″ is a good size.  You don’t have to be very exact.

Fold the stack in half and draw half of flower shape with your fabric marker on the top piece of fabric.

Using fabric scissors, cut through all 6 layers of fabric.

Unfold and rotate the layers for a little variation.  I have three stacks of flowers shown below.

Now pin the flower in the desired location on the onesie.

Repeat the previous steps to make as many flowers as desired (or required to hide the stain).  You can also make them in different sizes for some variety.  As you can see, I made 3 flowers and did an asymmetrical, boutonniere-type design.

Now, at the sewing machine, all you need to do is tack these in place.  (This could be handstitched too.)  On my machine, I used a decorative stitch that looks like this.

I simply placed the center of my flower under the presser foot  (removed the pin of course), slid my fabric a little bit more toward me so that the needle was not directly at the center anymore, set my stitch, and let it go through 1 stitching cycle.

And voila, the flower.  I think this is a poppy.

The knit fabric gives the flower some dimension.

Tip: For each additional flower, I reset the stitch so that I’d be sure that the machine started at the beginning of the stitch cycle.

After you’ve stitched the flowers down, you’re done.  See how easy that was?  The knit fabric won’t fray, so you don’t need to do anything else to keep your flowers looking fun.

This technique will also work for embellishing new onesies to give as gifts.  How do you like to embellish onesies and/or hide stains?