I got the idea for my hand-embroidered onesies from one of my favorite blogs, Pleasant View Schoolhouse, when she embroidered four onesies for a set of twins. I was so inspired, I fired up Google to get some information on how to do it myself. Here is the result, my personal method for embroidering a design and/or words onto a onesie.
Materials to gather/purchase:
- Blank onesies
- Small embroidery hoop
- Embroidery needle
- Embroidery floss in your colors
- Water-soluble sewing marker
- Lightweight tear-away stabilizer
- Soft fusible interfacing
First, you must put together the design you wish to embroider. For baby onesies, the possibilities are many: Baby Face, Punkin, Sweet Pea, Little Prince, Miracle, or whatever nickname the parents use. I plan to make a “Doozer” shirt for my son at some point. I searched the Microsoft Clipart Gallery for a suitable picture and downloaded it to my computer. I then opened up the clipart in photo editing software and toggled the saturation to zero and fiddled with the brightness and the contrast until I had reduced it to a black and white line drawing, suitable for tracing.
Next, I chose and downloaded a cute font from DaFont. In the editing software, I created a text box beneath the clipart and wrote in my words. Now it is ready to be traced onto the onesie.
Here are my designs, feel free to use them!
Now, find the top center of the front of your onesie (where you want the design to go) and mark it with the marker. Place your embroidery hoop over the mark so that the fabric is stretched over the back of the hoop (not the front like when you’re ready to begin stitching). Then lay it flat against the computer screen and line up your mark on the fabric with the center of your design. You may have to zoom in or out in the computer program to get the design to be the correct size for your project, and you may have to increase the brightness of your screen. When it’s the right size and is centered, carefully trace the design onto your fabric with the water-soluble marker.
Remove the hoop and replace it on the onesie, with the stabilizer behind the fabric and both stretched over the front of the hoop. Now you’re ready to embroider your design! And the best place to start is Needle’NThread’s video library of stitches, an incredibly helpful resource!
When done, gently wash the onesie or just rinse with water to remove the marker lines. When dry, apply fusible interfacing to the back of the design, to prevent any loose threads from tickling the baby.There are other transfer methods for using your own designs, like printing on transfer paper and ironing it on, but I found that for a simple design, this method is cheaper, faster and easier. There are also many books to buy that have designs ready to iron-on.
Posted on July 10th, 2007 by Dove
Filed under: Domestic Arts
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