Nifty Little Onesies-A Beginners Guide to Applique

Even though I have not posted many new projects I have been busy working on quite a few. First I did a custom diaper bag & change pad clutch order which I completed today and I have been working on many more baby projects. Here in our town farmers grow watermelons and so every fall we have a big watermelon festival with a parade, and arts and crafts vendors, ball games, dancing, music, good food and of course free "all you can eat" melons. So this year I decided that I would do a booth specializing in everything baby. I have slowly been trying to sew at least one new thing a day, and some days if I am lucky and my craft room garbage can seems extra inviting to small fry I get a few things sewn. This week I have been working on appliqued onesies; a cute and fairly easy way to turn a plain onesie into something unique and cute. Here's a tutorial for all the sewers out there.

First: I search the Internet to find pictures that I want to turn into my applique. I search for "coloring pages" because it is easy to find basic shapes and there is so much variety. I then copy and paste the images into Microsoft word and resize them. Then I print out multiple copies (at least 3, you may need 4 depending on how detailed your images are). I will explain below. Here are the images I printed out to use.

Second: You want to cut out your image into parts. This allows you to layer fabrics to create a multi dimensional applique. Here is how I cut apart my cupcake pieces. This is why you need more than one copy of the image. You have to create some imaginary lines while you are cutting where the fabrics will overlap.
Third: Trace the pieces onto your Heat N' Bond paper. I have heard that Wonder Under works much better but I have an industrial size roll of Heat N' Bond that I need to use up. It is stiff at first but softens up after a wash so no worries.

Fourth: Cut out the pieces but not on the line. You want to cut slightly outside of the lines. (Finally a time when it is okay to do something outside of the lines)

Fifth: Iron these pieces onto the wrong side of your fabrics. Now cut them out on the lines.Sixth: Peel off the paper backing, position the pieces on your onesie and press with an iron (just press, don't move the iron around a bunch).
Seventh: Now you will sew around the edge of the applique. I used to try doing a zig zag stitch but then read on the blog Crap I've Made how she always uses a straight stitch. I tried that this time and loved it. The zig zag always gummed up my sewing needle and caused so much hastle. The straight stitch worked like a breeze. (I am not sure about how much it will fray after it is washed because I prewashed my onesies so if anyone has tried this please let me know.) I set my stitch length to a smaller setting (I used a stitch length of 2) and here is one other thing that worked so great: clear quilting thread. I used this for my upper thread and a white bobbin for my lower. It makes it so you don't have to change threads with each fabric color and it seemed to sew better than regular thread through the Heat N' Bond. Don't try using it on both upper and bobbin thread. I have tried it and while it works, it is a pain in the rear end.


Here is my completed cupcake before I added the cherry.

Here is my dot for the cherry on top. I found a fabric scrap that I had that had polka dots on it and this on just happened to be perfect for the cherry. Sometimes I iron on the large pieces first, sew them on and then add the little ones second.

Here is the completed applique. By the way I just free handed the cherry stem. There is no point trying to trace a piece this small from a pattern.
There you have it, a cute and easy way to dress up a onesie. After I had the cupcake complete I decided I wanted to add the word "sweet" underneath. I printed the word on the onesie with a washable pencil and then hand embroidered it. After I finished the embroidery I turned the onesie inside out and cut a piece of iron on interfacing a little larger than the word and ironed it on to cover the stitches. If you look at any embroidered baby clothes they all have this material inside. It won't last forever but should hold up for a bit until everything softens up.I think it turned out so cute. Don't you. Here is the group that I made this week. I am planning on matching these with burp rags to sell in little sets. I will show you that in the future.Now as a side note. You can use this same applique making idea with paper. I did this when I decorated our baby nursery. I wanted to have a border of animals all around the room so I looked for animal pictures online and followed the same steps for cutting out the separate pieces and traced them onto paper and then glued them together and then to the wall. Here is a little look at a few of them.