Our sweet baby is officially growing up and potty training. Onesies are not the best wardrobe choice for the potty training 2 year old to manage. I have not been super impressed with most of the t-shirts I've seen lately. They're either plastered with junk, overly sassy phrases, or out of my price range for a toddler's t-shirt. I do, however, like the prints of many of the onesies. I also like that they are easy for my, "I do it all myself, Mama!" girl to get on by herself. The wider head hole doesn't hurt either. I also like that I own these already so in my brain that means they are free.
This was crazy easy. You may have seen other DIY posts on this, but this is how I did it. I hope it helps you on your quest for making more with less!
I spent a little less than an hour and ended up with 8 "new" t-shirts!!! I was on a roll (and Lill was sleeping) so I also threw together a dress made from one of the onesies and scrap fabric I had. The dress took about an hour, mainly because I wanted to make pleats and I'd never done them before so I was figuring that out. I bet it would take 15-20 min less for the next one.
Want to give this a try? Here is what I did. I hope it works for you!
Onesie Up-cycle T-shirt
Materials:
Cute onesie
Sewing machine and thread
Iron
pins
scissors (or better yet a rotary cutter & cutting mat)
Steps:
1. Cut off the bottom of the onesie as close to the leg openings as possible.
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| What to do with the snap part?? |
2. Get your iron warmed up and give the onesie a once over. (Be sure it is inside out.) Then turn up the bottom edge about 3/4" and press. I do this first to be sure my bottom hem will be nice and
straight. Now, you have 2 options. I did it both ways and bother are suitable.
a. Leave this as is and go on to step 3.
b. Fold the raw edge under so it touches the inside of the hem you just pressed and press again. This will give you a finished hem on the top and the bottom of it. I'm sure there is some technical term for this, blah blah blah.
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| This is the hem as it looks on the outside of the shirt. |
BAM! T-shirt! You're done! See? It is super simple!
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| 8 "New" shirts! |
Onesie Dress
To do the dress follow the above directions- I used option A for finishing the hem for the dress. Set this aside.
4. Then, using pretty much any coordinating fabric cut it to the desired length for the skirt. I wanted it to be a bit longer so I made it 9 3/4" AFTER it was hemmed. I cut 2 pieces of fabric to 11 3/4" x 34" and laid them right sides facing each other and stitched them together to make 1 long piece for the skirt. (This proved to be a little longer than I needed, but it was better to have more than not enough length.) **I made box pleats, so I needed more fabric. If I hadn't done pleats probably 1 piece at the above dimensions would have done it.** Here is a box pleat tutorial. I didn't do each other the steps in this tutorial, but read through it, got the idea and winged it. It worked fine for a 2 year old's dress. ;)
5. Hem the piece of skirt fabric on the top and bottom edges. I made a 1/4" hem at the top and a 3/4" following option B above.
With pleats: If you're doing pleats, use your iron and pins to set the pleats along the top. Press them really well and pin after each one. On your sewing machine, run a stitch along the top where you pinned to secure your pleats. Remove the pins and press one more time.
Without pleats: If your fabric is stretchy, run it through your sewing machine with a straight stretch stitch, but stretch it a bit so that when you release it is bunches up a little. This will look super cute once you attach the top.Fold the skirt in half printed side to printed side and line up the edges. Secure with a couple pins. Sew the seam.
8. Attach the skirt to the top you set aside. With the top right side out, pin the skirt to the shirt. When you're pinning the skirt should look like it is flipped up with the underside showing.
9. Sew the skirt and the top together on your machine. Iron the seams, remove all pins (duh!), snip all loose threads.
BAM! Dress!
I used size 18 month onesie for the dress & t-shirts.
You can use either the jersey type onesie or the more stiff t-shirt type. The first t-shirt I did was the latter- it was a little easier to work with until I got the hang of it. The jersey is more stretchy, but still manageable.
Happy up-cycling! Pin It Now!
