ONESIE DRESS-TUTORIAL

The Onesie Dress, a tutorial 

 It is the perfect little dress for a little girl, and is pretty simple to make.

Here is a tutorial:

None of these instructions need to be followed exactly, just fyi.
They are more like suggestions.

 Step 1. Gather your supplies.
You will need:
a onesie, any size
1/3 yard fabric for dress
less than 1/4 yard fabric for ruffle (really just a 3 inch wide strip), optional
1/8 inch wide elastic, length depends on size of onesie
(I needed 15 inches for my size 3-6 month onesie.)

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Step 2. Wash and dry onesie and fabric.

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 Step 3. Measure the onesie.
Put your measuring tape straight across the front, directly under the sleeves.
(My onesie measured 7.5 inches across.)

 Then measure the length, starting about where you measured the width.
(Mine was 9.5 inches.)

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 tep 4. Cut (or rip, as I prefer) the fabric.

For the dress:
You will need a long rectangle.
Take the first measurement from Step 3 (7.5 in) and multiply it by 4 (30 in).
This is the length of the rectangle.
The width is the second measurement from Step 3 (9.5 in), minus about 2 inches if you plan on adding a ruffle (7.5-ish).
Rip a piece of fabric to size.
(I prefer ripping because it is fast and accurate.)

For the ruffle:
Take the length of the rectangle for the dress (30 in) and multiply it by 1.5 (45 in).
This is the length of your ruffle.
The width can vary, but I find 3 inches (it will be 2 inches when finished) to be a good size.
Rip a piece of fabric to size.

Press torn edges.

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Step 5. Sew side seams together on dress and ruffle.
(I prefer a 1/2 inch seam allowance, but anything will work.)

Press.

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Now finish the top edge of the dress and the bottom edge of the ruffle
by turning the rough edge under about 1/4 inch, and then again, and stitching.
(If you chose not to add a ruffle, you would finish both edges of the dress.)

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Step 6. Gather the ruffle and attach to dress.
After gathering, pin the ruffle to the dress, right sides together, matching side seams, and making sure to spread the gather evenly.
Sew in place.
(This step is a kind of a pain.)
Finish the rough edge inside with a zig zag stitch.
(This keeps it from raveling and just looks nicer.
Also, this is when I dream of owning a serger.)
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Step 7. Topstitch
This will make the ruffle lie flat and pretty.
It also looks more official this way.

Step 8. Attach the elastic.

Remember when you measured across the front of the onesie way back in step 3?
You need that measurement again (7.5 in) times two (15 in).
Cut the elastic this length.
Position the elastic on the wrong side of the fabric, just under the finished edge, and sew it on, pulling tight to stretch it as you go.
(I like to mark the halfway point of the elastic and the dress with some pins. I try to match these up as I am sewing so the elastic will be even throughout the dress.)
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 Step 9. Attach the dress to the onesie.
Pin the dress to the onesie, making sure the top edge is straight.

 Sew in place.
I use a small zig zag stitch directly over the elastic.
Take your time on this step, and make sure the onesie is flat underneath.

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Different dress depicted from tutorial. same technique used to achieve this look.

 Step 10. Give to a pretty baby girl.

 

 This dress leaves a lot of room for embellishment, if that is your thing.
Piping, ric rac, ribbon, etc. would all dress it up a bit.

 

All measurements can be approximated, because a gathered dress leaves a lot of room for error.
 

TEA DYING OLD ONSIES - TUTORIAL

Tea Dying Old Onesies

Baby Ruth is our 3rd child and the poor girl is destined to wear more than her fair share of hand-me-downs. Like this pile of onesies...already worn by one brother and one sister...not as bright as they used to be...and even a little stained...

 But instead of making her wear them all dingy and sad I wanted to make them over into something I would actually want to put Ruth in. Finally I decided that the best solution would be dye. And I set about to revive an old love of mine----the tea dye.

 Tea dying is easy I just follow these simple steps:

#1. Get your garment wet. (I just ran mine under some warm water and then wrung out the excess.)

#2. Submerge your garment in a warm tea bath. (I just boiled water in a pot on the stove, added several Lipton tea packets, let simmer until my water turned a nice deep shade of brown and then let it cool down before adding the clothing.)
#3. Let your garment sit in the bath until you get the color you desire. (Actually I let mine get a little darker to compensate for the rinse to follow.)
#4. Rinse your garment until the water runs clear.
#5. Dry in the drier to set the color.

 Once I was finished with that process I started adding things like lace and buttons to the onesies to make them a little more girly. (They really didn't need anything added, I forgot how much I love anything tea dyed, but I couldn't help myself and out came the trim bin.)

 It was a simple, old fashioned project but I kind of love it. (And I always like the idea of giving something old new life again.) Now I just need Ruth to get big enough to wear them.