DIY Birthday Onesie

HOW TO MAKE A BIRTHDAY ONESIE

You will need:

a onesie or fitted shirt

number of the age of your child on paper

fabric of you choice

needle and thread

Sewing Machine

First off you have to find a onesie or fitted t-shirt in your child's size. Paisley's onesie came from a garage sale and Jaysa came in a pack of three from Walmart for about $8. They were actually a 2T but I have bought those onesies before and know that they are ridicoulsly big! I knew that a 2T would fit my 3 year old. If you are going to Walmart to buy your onesie buy a smaller size or even open up the box so you can see how big the onesie is. The other thing that I thought would be cute was to do a colored onesie but those might be hard to find.

After you have your onesie you will have to find the number of their age in a cute font you like. I simply google imaged "number 1" and "number 3" and found exactly what I was looking for. Print out the number you like and then cut it out.

After you cut it out place it on your onesie to make sure it fills out the chest of the onesie and looks proportionate.

Then you will place your number on the bias of your fabric. The bias is the direction in which the fabric is the stretchiest. This will make it easier for you when you are sewing your number onto your onesie. At first I was a little worried about my pattern if I cut out my number diagonally but it turned out just fine. You couldn't even tell. If you have a fabric that will not look ok when cut on the bias thats ok. You will just need to do a really good basting stitch and go really slow when using the sewing machine. It may be a little harder because you are sewing something that is not very stretchy onto a onesie, which usually has a good amount of stretch but it can be done.

Pin your number to your fabric to make sure it doesn't move while you are cutting it out

Now you will place your number on your onesie. Make sure it is in the center of the chest and not too close to the neck line or too low that the tutu will cover up your number.

After you have determined where you want it you will do a basting stitch along the boarder of the number. If you want you can make the stitches that are shown on top of you fabric smaller and the ones shown on the inside longer or you can just cut out the basting stitch once you have done a zig zag stitch with your sewing machine.

When you are doing your basting stitch make sure that your stitches are not to tight. If they are your number will start to bunch in certain areas. If it is take your needle and run it under your most recent stitch and pull up. Continue doing this to each stitch until your number lays perfectly flat again.

I made my stitches on top really small and my stitches on the inside bigger. Just so you have an idea of how it looked here is how the inside of my number looked.

After you have your basting stitch finished then you will use your sewing machine to do a zig zag stitch along the border of the number. GO SLOW if you need to! I originally only wanted to go around my number once but I was using a friends machine because mine was in the shop and it only had one speed, lightening fast! The first time I went around my number I got off track a few times so I ended up going over mine about three times to make sure it was secure. If you have never used a sewing machine here is a tip or two. Don't try to go around the corners while the sewing machine is sewing. When you get to a corner make sure your needle is down. Pull up the lever that moves the foot of the sewing machine up and turn your onesie so that you will be sewing in the correct direction again. It is much harder to try to make that turn while the sewing machine is going.

Here is a picture of the foot of the sewing machine

In this picture the foot is up.

After you have your number sewn on YOU WILL NEED TO IRON your number. DO NOT skip this step it makes a world of difference. After I had finished sewing my number I was a little unsure if I liked the way it looked but after ironing my number it looked much better.

Here is Paisley in her cute onesie!

To learn how to make any of the other props used in my girls birthday pictures choose from the following:

Click here for the tutu tutorial

Click here for the birthday hat or crown tutorial

Click here for the fondant cupcake tutorial.

Click here for the tissue paper pom pom tutorial

Click here of the rosette pom pom tutorial