Thursday, June 23, 2011

Onesies for My Niece The Grand Finale

This last installment is an embroidered one.  Here's a refresher of what you will need:

Onesie (duh!)

embroidery needle

embroidery floss (I used light purple, dark purple, gold, and variegated teal plus some extra for basting, color doesn't matter for the extra. Once again I don't know the DMC numbers because it came from that floss fish bowl I mentioned earlier.)

dryer sheet and coffee filter (I used both but it would probably be better to just use the dryer sheet. I'll explain later.)

scissors (as always)

pencil and pen

design template unless you want to freehand something. I got my template from a book I checked out at the library called The Anchor Book of Free-Style Embroidery Stitches.


Ok let's get started!

First take out your dryer sheet and trace the design you want onto it. I traced onto a coffee filter (as you will see in the pictures) and did not attach it to the fabric in any way when I was trying to trace onto the fabric, but I basted a dryer sheet to my onesie to stabilize it.  I think if I had traced my template onto the dryer sheet that I used as the stabilizing fabric I could have just stitched on top of the lines instead of trying to transfer the lines to the fabric first.  I hope that makes sense, if not just ask and I will try to clarify.  In other words trace onto whatever you are using for a stabilizing fabric or as my mom would put it do as I say and not as I do.

Lying on the book ready to trace
In pencil

Now in pen and trimmed to a more manageable size.

 At this point I traced my image as best I could onto the fabric which as you will see was not exact but it worked. If you try it with tracing onto the stabilizing fabric let me know how it works out for you. 

Next I turned the onesie wrong side out and basted the dryer sheet piece to it using some extra embroidery floss.


Turned wrong side out and dryer sheet in place.

Ready to begin basting.

All ready to start embroidering. You can just barely see my birdie outline.

 Now its time to embroider. You can follow the stitches listed in the book, which is pretty much what I did except for the beak, or you can do your own thing. The choice is up to you.  Here's what I did:

A work in progress!

Close up of a back stitch.

More of the wing.

All finished on the front side time to take out the basting floss.

Now use your scissors to carefully snip and tear off the extra dryer sheet.

All sniped and cleaned up.

And thats it! Here are all the onesies:




And here they are packed and ready to go!

All tied up with a bow!

BONUS MATERIAL!!!!!


Just for kicks here's a printed onesie I dolled up as well. I tatted my niece's name using letter patterns from a booklet given to me by a most lovely person and wonderful friend (Along with a ginormous bunch of other crafting stuff including the pearl cotton I used to tat the letters. Thanks, Nicole!!).   I love this booklet so much that I have forbidden anyone with unclean hands to touch it, why you may ask, well I'll tell you. The name of the booklet is Tatted and Crocheted Designs Star Book 30 and it's copyright date is 1944! So if you hurt it, you DIE! It's just that simple.  I love every pattern in this booklet!  If you ever see one in your vicinity and you like to tat or crochet you MUST get it!  Well enough about the booklet ( I Love this Booklet! Sorry just had to say it one more time!) here's the pic:

CLARA

Me holding Clara. Auntie Sarita Loves You!

Onesies for My Niece Part 4

Ok now its time for the big boo boo. This started out as a good idea but quickly turned to ick. I will just give you the pics of what I did since it did not work then I will show you how I rectified the situation and what I think went wrong. Ok here we go!


Fabric Crayons I love them! But this time they don't love me back!







Not perfect but I drew it and colored with my fabric crayons.


Flipped over and ready to iron.

Crayon showing through the back.
At this point I peeled off the paper to admire my work and was proud of how it had turned out, too bad I didn't take a pic of it then. I waited until it came out of the washer which had unfortunately did this to it:


Faded almost beyond recognition.


The moral of the story boys and girls, always read the instructions. My crayons were apparently supposed to only be used on cotton/poly blends NOT 100% cotton.  So what's a girl too do?  I'll tell you. I took out my trusty fabric MARKERS (which work great on 100% cotton btw) and went over the faint mess that was left and saved the whole works.  Which unfortunately you will only be able to see a small pic of in the last installment because I seemed to have inadvertently deleted the finished picture of this one. Sorry! 

So stay tuned to see how it all turns out.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Onesies for My Niece Part 3

This next one is super duper easy peasy.  All you need is a onesie, crochet hook (I used a size G), some worsted weight yarn, and a needle with thread to match the yarn.

I started out intending to make a doily like the cute onesies I saw on Dollar Store Crafts but the doily pattern I picked turned out to be a little too large and unfortunately I did not realize this until too late.  So I wracked my brain thinking what else could I sew on this little booger. I didn't want to make another doily that would take too long. (I wanted to hand deliver the onesies to Arizona where my sister-in-law lives and the plane hubs and I were taking left the next morning.)  I didn't want to do another flower so I thought why not a little heart after all how can you not think of hearts with a face like this:





Ok so there are pretty much only three steps to this one.

Step 1: Crochet Heart (I used this pattern and made heart C.)




Step 2: Sew Heart to onesie using matching thread.







Step 3:  Admire your handy work!

Random Kitty Picture! Btw she's standing on the too big doily!

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Onesies for My Niece Part Dos

I bet you have been wondering about that Kool Aid I mentioned in the materials list of the first post, if so grab it and be prepared to have your mind blown.  You are about to find out how my strange little brain works.

First let me tell you the extras you will need.


plastic bowl or tub (I used a margarine bowl)

vinegar and a big pinch of salt (Yes, I am weird! Thank you for noticing! But it leads to a great side story!  It was pretty late at night when I started my dye process and I vaguely remembered a conversation I once had with my Mimmaw, thats what I call my dad's mom, about dying fabric. I remembered asking her what went wrong when a natural dye I had used washed out completely on the first wash. She asked what I had used as a fixative. I said, "What's that?" so she explained it to me and told me what to use. Back to present It's about 11:30 at night and I am trying to remember what she told me to use, was it vinegar or salt? I couldn't remember and although my Mim stays up pretty late I was afraid to call her and scare her just to ask a silly question so what the heck toss 'em both in couldn't hurt, right?)

2 cups of hot water

A little faith, ok alot we are using Kool Aid after all

First a note on the Kool Aid flavor. I used cherry I was aiming for pink but use whatever flavor will give you the color you desire, just remember it will turn out to be very, VERY light in color when all is said and done.

Ok we're ready. Take your plastic container and mix the Kool Aid, hot water, splash of vinegar, and big pinch of salt together in it.

Looks Really RED, right? Don't worry just trust me! Like I said you need faith.

Submerge your onesie, the best you can and let sit over night. It is ok that not all of the onesie is covered it will give it a cool wave effect, kind of like on a dip dye fabric. You do however need to make sure the whole thing is saturated with the Kool Aid mix. If you use your hands to do this you may want to put on gloves. I tell you this because I didn't and you can guess what my hands looked like, that's right red!

Remember Faith!

Now let it sit this way for at least 8 hours or overnight. I tried less time and it just washed out completely. If you have any tweaks that work for you please let me know! I'd love to hear them!

After it has sat in the dye bath remove, wring out excess liquid (with gloves, wink wink) and let it air dry. I was planning on putting it in the dryer but I was afraid it might dye the inside of the dryer and since I rent I don't think my landlord would appreciate it even though she is a very cool lady.

I put an old wash cloth underneath to protect my chair, worked like a charm.

All dry!

Now toss in the washer! I washed it with cold water on the longest wash setting.

Ready for the next step.


Ok from the first list of materials grab:

embroidery floss (I used hot pink and lime green, I am not really sure of the DMC numbers since most of my embroidery floss came in a fish bowl I bought at a yard sale, he, he.)

Crochet Hook (Once again I think I used a size 0 but you use whatever gives you the size object you want.)

Scissors

Black Fabric Marker

Cardboard Scrap

Needle with a fairly large eye



Place the cardboard scrap inside the onesie as before positioning it all the way up so it covers the neck and chest area (see above pic).

Take the fabric marker and begin making dots in an arc around the neck hole. You are essentially drawing a necklace. If you need help with placement take a piece of string and position it to use as a guide for where to put your dots, see below.

String guide line.


Long necklace.



Now take out your embroidery floss, crochet hook, and flower pattern of your choice. I used a forget-me-not pattern I got out of the book Crochet Inspiration by Sasha Kagan. If you want the pattern I will be glad to send it to you but if you have the chance to get the book it is great!  I checked it out at the library and I liked it so much I may just buy a copy.


Crochet the flower leaving a long tail, you will be using this to attach the flower to the onesie. Stitch the flower off center to the dot necklace using the large eyed needle.

Almost Finished!
After I got my flower sewed on I decided it needed a little something extra so I added a shorter necklace just above the first one and Ta Da we're done!


A cute onesie for a very cute girl!

Friday, June 3, 2011

Onesies for My New Niece! Part 1

My sister-in-law just had a baby so I have a brand spanking new baby niece and she is so freaking, smush her cheeks adorable!


Yes, I'm smiling. No, its not gas. Didn't you know? Girls don't poot.

I love my blankie and it's not just because Auntie Sarita knit it for me, although that does help!




And do you think I would send her just a plain old pack of white onesies? If you said yes then Shame on You! We will discuss your punishment later for now just sit back and watch what I'm going to do!



These ideas are mostly for inspiration more than anything else so I may leave out a detail or two here and there. (Psst also there are some boo boos along the way. Hey even a self proclaimed craft queen is allowed to make a mistake now and then and if I tell you about it maybe you can help me fix it or maybe I can prevent an epic craft fail from befalling you.)  If you need some clarity just ask otherwise just be inspired to do your own awesome thing!

Things you will need:

(This is for all the onesies but I will give the instructions over several posts.)

5 pack of 100% cotton onesies in the size of your choice (I have newborn b/c well my niece is brand spanking new, literally, she is not even a month old yet!)

fabric markers (I also used fabric crayons but it was not a good idea you'll see why later.)


Cardboard to keep the markers from bleeding through (You could also use some scrap paper, just know that you will need more than one layer of paper and it probably shouldn't have any thing on it i.e. ink or crayon. I had no trouble with my scrap cardboard's printing, though.)

Kool Aid (Yes I said Kool Aid, and don't look at me like that. I know it is not really a dye on cotton it is more of a stain but hey its kid safe. Besides, more than likely the baby will not be in that size of onesie long enough for the stain to get washed out. That's my theory any way.)

Some images of your choice (I used a Hello Kitty coloring page, drew a cartoonie looking rainbow, and used a pattern from an embroidery book.)

Crochet hook (I think I used a size zero, but you can use whatever gets you the size object you want.)

Embroidery Floss in colors of your choice

Embroidery Needle

Dryer Sheet and/or Coffee filter

Scissors (When do you not need scissors!?!)

Imagination, time, and whatever else it takes to get the job done.




Ready? Ok lets get started!




First wash all your onesies and dry them No Fabric Softener Please!


Ahhh a nice clean canvas!

Lets start with the Hello Kitty Onesie, shall we.

I did a google search for Hello Kitty Coloring pages and came up with this beauty.


Sorry I already trimmed it I guess I was a little excited!



Next trim off the whiskers. You can get rid of these we won't need them any more since you can see from Hello Kitty's face where the whiskers should radiate from.

Sorry Hello Kitty!


Now take a piece of cardboard and place it inside the onesie like this:

There goes the cardboard.



Make sure it completely covers the area where you will be drawing. Then take out your fabric markers.




 Place the image onto the onesie where you want it.  Adjust until you like the look.


I like it here.



Close up!

 Out line carefully and quickly.

Mine bled a little if you draw more quickly maybe this won't happen to you.

Now place the image behind the fabric making sure to center it in your outline.

You can just barely see the lines. You may want to do this step under a lamp or in front of a window.

Carefully and quickly go over the lines.

Better, not as much bleeding this time.


Now its coloring time. I chose purple. I know Hello Kitty is usually pink but I don't really care for pink and hey who says Hello Kitty always has to wear pink.




I did make her nose pink. Sorry about the weird coloring on the next few pics, not sure what happened.


Now take out your image again and place it over your colored in Hello Kitty and use the lines on the face to help you see where to put the whiskers.


Not perfect alignment but good enough.


Almost finished!


My markers say to heat set by either tossing in the dryer or ironing on the reverse side (Do I really need to say it?  Ok, I will. Follow the instructions on YOUR Markers.) I had the iron handy so thats what I did.

Flipped Wrong side out.

Be careful irons are HOT! What you already knew that? Well, me too and I still burned myself. Oh Well.


Yeah! One down and Four to go!


Stay tuned to see what I do next!