...Little Loves...: clothes

Monday, April 2, 2012

embroidered onesies - tutorial

Embroidery is an easy way to personalize and beautify simple items. It is especially nice for anything baby related. For this project I picked up a couple of white onesies for about $5 and turned them into something a little more special.

To start out find the center of your garment so you know where to place the wording. Then using your embroidery hoop to stabilize the garment lightly write out the word you want to embroider in pencil. I write so lightly that you can barely see it but it's enough to guide you and then it will come out easily in the wash. You could also find some word art online to help you design your embroidery but I just free hand it.

I used a simple back stitch for this. It is the most basic of stitches but it is nice and neat and for a lightweight garment like this it seems to work best. Just remember that when you are starting your first letter that you go one stitch length in from the bottom so you can back up to where you actually want the first stitch to be.

The felt flowers are simple to make and you can find good tutorials for them here and here.

This kind of project makes for a great baby gift and of course you could personalize the garment with a name.

I'm sharing this project at some super cool link parties - check them out.

Friday, February 3, 2012

jammies

The other night my little one started complaining that his all-in-one pajamas were hurting his legs and sure enough they were getting pretty tight. He is 2.5 and I had him in 3T p.j.s but it was clear we needed to go up a size. Off to Target and of course there were no 4T footed pajamas left. I need to go online to get him some as we still have a couple of cold months left but to bridge the gap I scouted through my fabric stash and found this cute little woodland creature flannel.

Wide leg gives lots of room to move around

To cut the shape I simply traced around a pair of pants that do fit him well and sewed from memory. Since pajama bottoms were the first thing I ever learned to make a sewing class and it has been etched on to my brain. I made the leg a little wider than his regular pants so that they would be more comfortable for lounging and sleeping. I love making pajama bottoms - they take about 30 minutes for me to do and there is so little cutting and thinking involved!

The heart really makes I think!

I had some left over fabric so I took a t-shirt that had seen the last of its "day-time" wear (due to chocolate stain I can't shift!) and put a little applique heart on it. Given the time of year I think they are a super cute nod to Valentine's Day and he really loves them so that's all that matters.