I'm a child of the 60's and 70's so of course a Tie Dyed project or two was destined to be in my future!
I wanted to make something personalized for the birth of my two new Grandchildren, so I decided to try some tie-dyed onesies!
I have only finished 2 and these are the two that I will showcase here.
These were made for my adorable new Granddaughter C, whom you can see below, modeling one of the onesies!
I got inspired to create these from a book that I found in my local library,
101 Snappy Fashions by Cathie Filian.
I think I kept re-checking the book out until they wouldn't allow it anymore, so I finally purchased it from Amazon!
It really is a great book to get you excited about tye-dyeing!
Cute ideas, awesome photographs and even several patterns you can trace if you'd like.
It also has very detailed instructions on various tye-dyeing methods and types of dyes.
Since it had been SO long since I had tye-dyed anything...(I was a pre-teen the last time I did it I believe!), I Googled it to try and find some videos on the process.
It's not that the book didn't have good instructions, it's just that I'm more visually oriented and get more out of watching a photo or video tutorial.
I found a lot of videos, but
this one made by YouTube user
cacacarkeys, in particular seemed to be easy to grasp and wasn't too involved.
The quality of the video isn't perfect, but it gets the point across.
Of course I also read the directions on the package of dye, and viewed other videos just because each source seemed to have only "parts" of the puzzle if you know what I mean.
Everyone has their own way of doing things and I guess I just wanted to get a sampling of different methods and then go forward.
I didn't take any videos or pictures of the Tye-dyeing process, as I was so unsure of myself and didn't want to pass on bad information, so I just decided to do the "Trial & Error" method! LOL!
When I finally came out with something I liked I decided to use those (onesies) and decorate them.
I did not use any exact designs from the book, but I was particularly inspired by the owl onesie on page 59,
because my DIL loves Owls and she did the babies room in Owls & Mushrooms.
I purchased an iron-on of a brown owl by Plaid Artsy Applique and added some details to it with a homemade stamp that I made (I will be posting a tutorial on how I did this soon) and some acrylic paint mixed with fabric medium.
I wanted to make the onesie look a little bit "girlie" also, so I added a purchased iron on of felt flowers.
I have a confession to make though...The onesie originally did not look EXACTLY like the picture above.
(And if you look at the picture of Little C modeling the onesie, you will see what I mean!)
I made a really dumb mistake that I still can't believe I did!
After initially ironing on the felt flowers I noticed that some of the edges did not stick all the way, and it was noticeable when I pulled the onesie off the baby...it looked like the flowers could come off.
So, I put the onesie away and decided I'd re-iron on the felt flowers the next day, as I was babysitting my Grandchildren and didn't want to be using an iron around them.
Well...somehow I must have landed on another plane of existence between that time, because later, the next day when I went to re-iron the flowers, I just stuck a VERY HOT iron right on top of the felt flower!!!!!
What the heck was I thinking???!!
Now, iron-ons are not something new for me...I've done them forever and have never made that mistake.
Of course you are supposed to use a pressing cloth over the design before applying the hot iron. (Duh!)
This is what happened...in full technicolor... (as if I really need to tell ya!) :
Needless to say...I had to do some quick thinking...or A LOT of crying!
I always get so stressed out when I ruin a project at the very end.
DH was nearby and tried to comfort me and assure me that everything was alright...but I wasn't feelin' it, so I just walked away and sulked for a bit.
I'm a firm believer in just chillin' out a bit in a situation like this and come back to it later when my mind is clear and I'm not so upset.
It was the right decision, because when I did come back to the project, I took one look at it and I knew what to do to fix it.
I remembered that there were two smaller coordinating flowers in the package also, so I got those out and started arranging them on the onesie to see if I could cover the messed-up spot and still make it look presentable.
It worked and maybe you all wouldn't even have know my secret if I hadn't tattled on myself!
The second onesie was much easier and less eventful for sure!
I used a pre-made embellishment for this one also, Studio18, Rhinestone Pig, purchased at Michaels.
After all the trial & tribulation with the first onesie, I just wanted to make this one simple & cute!
This embellishment did not require any ironing, it had fabric adhesive already on the back of the gems and I just did a "peel & stick".
These will be handwashed, even though I think they could handle machine washing on the gentle cycle.
Here is what I used for this project:
I am working on some more onesies for my new Grandson (A) and his big brother (J), so hopefully I will be posting about those soon.
Thanks for reading! I appreciate you all and would love to hear any comments or questions you have!
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