V and Co: baby girl gift: ombre doily onsie and matching quilt

 First off thank you for your wonderful support to the cyber sale we had in our little shop. Those who said they didn't mind waiting for the next shipment of our thread will not have to wait too long. I got word its already on its way. YAY! So hold tight its coming!
I have a friend having a baby.
So of course something handmade was to be made for her and her little girl coming soon.
It's been super gloomy here in my little corner of the world. It definitely makes me want to curl up under a quilt and read books or watch reruns of my favorite TV shows. And as much as I would love to do that all day long my judgy cat would probably give me a ton of crap and would remind me I have quite a bit on my plate these days and I can't waste my "work hours" during the time the kids are in school. She's kind of bossy, but I guess I need her to keep me in line.

 Anyways, I digress...I made this little onsie kind of like I made these ombre appliquéd  onsies.

you can read more about dying here.

and doing ombre dying here

This time around I wanted to do the doily ombre so that it could match the quilt I was planning on giving her:

 This doily quilt can be found in my book Make It Sew Modern: Gather, Twist, Pleat, Texture

I chose the same beige doily (found at joann's) as the starting point so that it would match the neutrals of the quilt I was giving her.
I think with bare little legs (for when baby is inside) or bundled up with a jacket and little leggings, this little onsie will be totally adorable.

And I also hope the mom likes it as much as I liked making it and giving it to them.

We'll talk soon.

V and Co: how to: make an ombre ruffled flower onesie

nothing says girl like pink ruffles. so lets round out with what else...pink ruffles.

this one is one of my favorite ones. super easy, super texture-y and super cute. 

we talked about dying your onesie ombre here.

and then we talked about dying and appliquéing your doily on the onesie here.

so now lets talk about making ombre flowers for a onesie.

what you'll need:

-one onesie.

-4 strips of 11/2" by at least 10" of white jersey. (i got mine at joann's) but you can get some from amazon, or you can just take an old white t-shirt as well. 

-rit dye 

 to make your strips ombre:
-take one end and dip the strip 1/3 of the way in and then let 1/4 of the strip set inside the dye for about 5 minutes.
-flip it around and do it to the other side as well.

 to make your ruffles:
-place your machine to it's longest stitch (mine is #5)
-place the top thread by the spool in between your fingers, and give a little tension

on one side of your strip start sewing the running stitch as you hold the thread up above to give it tension, and watch your strip begin to ruffle.

 next take your ruffled strip and curl it into itself to create one flower.

i am holding the back of the flower this is what it should look like on the back, the one on the table is what it should look like on the front.

 next with a needle and thread, go through all layers of the bottom layer of the flower. make sure you do it a few time in different locations on the bottom so that it is secure.

now to attach the flowers onto the onesie.

there are a few ways to do this. the way i did it was to place a piece of cardboard inside the shirt, and place a few dabs of fabric glue on the back of each flower.

once i let it dry, i then went back and secured it with a few stitches in each flower onto the onesie.

but as you can see any there are a few gaps that get created whenever you move the onesie around, and i want it to look more like a corsage...so we:

 make a few stitches in between on the flowers so that when the baby moves around she wont lose the shape of the corsage.

and now you have the means of making some super cute onesies.

go at it!

V and Co: how to: appliqué doilies onto a onesie

alrighty. so i heard from a few people, that lots of people are afraid of appliqué. is that true? this boggles me. it's not scary at all? but then again it's one of my favorite things because i can take it anywhere and work on it anytime. and i like the hand work.

but i get it it might be scary. so i'm going to talk a little today about appliquéing a doily onto your newly dyed onesie. and then in the near future we'll continue to talk about appliqué, because i think if you knew how to do it the easy way (no not with the raw edges though that would be find too) but with the right tools you to can do some great turn over looking appliqué. ah but i'm getting ahead of myself here. first lets just talk about this onesie at hand.

to make this onesie you will need:

doilies: now if you have heirloom ones and you wont be making anyone roll over in their grave or upset your great aunt maltilda by dyeing them or using them on something other than a decorative coaster...awesome.

if you need to buy some of your own: go here and joanns has a ton as well. i got mine at joanns (just make sure you buy the crochet doilies not the paper ones).

you can also just use doilies as is. like in my book:

where i make this simple yet elegant gathered border doily quilt. 

see you don't have to dye it...but it sure is kind of fun to do so. :)

okay so lets keep moving:

what you need:

-doilies.

-dyed onesies and doily

-needle and aurifil or any thread to match your color of dye. (i used aurifil)

-embroidery scissors

-pins

and for more thin doilies (and my favorite wonder web  to use for appliqué):

Pellon Wonder-Web 807  <-- we'll show you how to use it next.

okay so first things first:

placement.

where do you want the doily? i wanted most of the doily to show on the front but because it was kind of big i wanted it off center. and i thought it would look cute going around to the back.

so from looking at the onesie from the front i liked the off centered look of the top picture...

so next i shifted the onesie on its side (with the hem facing me) and started to pin it in place. (now disclaimer: i am not using a stabilizer because we wont be sewing it on with a machine, it will be done by hand, if you do not feel comfortable skipping this then by all means place a stabilizer.)

make sure your doily is laying completely flat.

and start to pin the front side of your doily down making sure you only pin through the top layer of your onesies.

once you have a little over half of your doily set in place with the pins, shift the onesies so it is facing down, and make sure when you lay your onesie down flat there are no puckers or loose fabric under the doily.

take your threaded needle and bring the needle up through the jersey and the doily.
next take your needle and place it close the first stitch and go back through the doily and the jersey.
take small stitches first around the whole doily, then making an X through the middle. continue to stitch more X's until you feel like it is secured onto the onesie good enough.

okay now lets look at a thinner more delicate doily:
get your pellon and cut it out the shape of the doily. (it doesnt have to be perfect you just have to cover most of the doily so it won't sag where the stitches aren't placed)

next pin in place...

and flip your onesie so the backside is showing. (you may want to place a protective thin cloth under the onesies (so any of the webbing wont get on the ironing board) and a cloth under the iron-just in case) 

iron gently till the webbing has melted and adhere's the doily onto the front of the shirt (again the edges might not be perfectly kept down we just want to make sure that the doily stays put)

after you check that it indeed is secured in place repin just to make sure it doesn't travel or anything. 

and then repeat all the other steps we did with the doily.

and now you have two adorable looking one of a kind onesies.
next how to will be the ruffled ombre flower onesie...and then i have another fun thing we'll make with all the doilies i bought. :)

V and Co: making baby gifts

i've been busy making things baby gifts this week for a baby shower i was invited to. i made a few different kinds, this one is a simple ruffled ombre flower one.
and well, might as well show you how i made it and the other ones right? :)
so next week watch for how to's on baby onesies and a decor to go with it. i've had fun with it, and experimenting with the dye.
have a fantabulous weekend.
we'll talk soon.