Dinosaur Onesies (part 2)

Here we are again, part 2. And I'm sorry (not) for the false advertising in the previous post. I realized last Thursday that I had another baby shower to attend and another white onesie. So I set out to create a photo tutorial for you. And good thing I did, because though I felt it was simpler, it seems to be more steps than the last one.

It turned out adorable, of course (who doesn't want their little baby to look like a mini dinosaur?? I would!) and I loved the way the spikes stood up more uniformly.

On to the tutorial, and good luck! I'll tell you now, the hardest part is the beginning and end of the final seam.

Materials and Supplies:

• Sewing machine with desired thread color (I used white because I'm lazy and that was what was in the machine)
• Sewing machine needle for knits (optional, but maybe cause less rips in the knit)
• Fabric scissors and paper scissors (unless you like using your fabric scissors for paper, your choice, no judging... I think I actually used 4 different pairs of scissors for this project)
• Small piece of cardboard
• Tissue paper, pencil/pen, pins
• Onesie (I a onesie for 3-6 months)
• Thin fleece in desired color (I bought mine at walmart (barf), thin = less bulge on baby's back) (I bought a 1/4 yard, but you could probably get away with, like, 3 inches)
• Straight edge (a yard stick worked well for me)

1. Cut out a cardboard template for how big you want the spikes to be (include about 1/4" on all sides for the seams). Trace it onto tissue paper. Download my template pattern, or make your own. Mine measures 2.5" along the bottom and 2" on the sides)
2. Cut out any number of pattern pieces from the tissue (I did 8)
3. Pin pattern pieces to fleece.
4. Cut out 18-20 (2 for each spike, 9 spikes fit on a 3-6 month onesie) pieces and stack in groups of 2, with right(the side you want to see in the end) sides together. I like to stack mine, alternating where the point is for easy transportation from workspace to sewing station.
   
5. Move on over to your sewing machine and stitch along the 2 side edges of each triangle pair (not the bottom edge!). A quick tip if you don't know: sew all of them on one side in a chain fashion, snip apart and sew all on the other side... saves some time.
6. Snip the top tip of each triangle off (it will form a better point once it's right-side out).
7. Flip the triangles right-side out, using a pencil or scissors to gently push the tip the rest of the way out.
8. Snip the corners sticking out.
9. Flip the onesie inside out and find the halfway point in a few places, then draw a line down the middle from top to bottom using your straightedge and a pencil. (beware that the tag or size label may not be directly in the center)
   
10. Starting an inch from the edge (don't cut through the seam/binding/whatever-it's-called-on-the-edge-of-the-garment), cut down your line until you are an inch from the other edge. Fold the onesie in half so that the cut is on the edge.
11. Peel back the top layer of onesie fabric and carefully lay the spikes down, so that the point faces toward the inside of the fold.
12.  (repeat) Line the unseamed edges of the spike with the cut edges of the onesie, fold the top layer back over and pin in place.
13. Sew from bottom to top,  approximately 1/4 inch in. Do your best to taper the sewing off at the bottom and top so you close off the cut, but don't seam the edges. The snap is especially difficult to work around. Backstitch at both the beginning and the end.
14. Make sure your fabric didn't fold over anywhere along the seam and fix as necessary. Optional: you can trim some of the excess fleece off after the seam is finished (a little less bulk on baby's back).
15. Flip right-side out and admire your handiwork!

This is my cuteness :) check out that underbite

Join me again next week for something totally different! (probably food... and no dinosaurs)

Dinosaur Onesies (part 1)

We are going to backtrack here a couple, er, months... allll the way to November.

ok, you caught me, I am not positive about the month, but it was somewhere around then! It might have been September...

Give me a break, ok.

I had a baby shower to attend and wanted something cute, diy, and simple. I had recently seen dinosaur hoodies all over pinterest (and loved them! also, I wanted a dino hoodie for Jack), so I thought, 'how hard can a dinosaur onesie be? (and I can test the different methods before I make Jack's!)' The answer is: not difficult at all!

However, you'll soon realize that I am very good at making things much more complicated than necessary (yes, for the fun of it... though I do kick myself, sometimes, for it). It's a family trait. You will see what I mean in a bit

I followed (if you can call it following) two different routes... and now that I think of it, I may have made up the 2nd version based on this picture.

But, here's the first one:

This one was based loosely off of this really good tutorial. And I apologize, because my tutorial will not even compare!

Things you need:
- sewing machine (and all the things that go with that: needle (regular needle should work, but I used a special needle for knits), thread, electricity, etc)
- tissue paper
- a small amount of fleece (the original tutorial uses felt)
- baby onesie
- embroidery floss
- embroidery needle

1. fold your tissue in half and cut a triangle on the crease (keep the fold intact), the size you want your spikes to be. unfold it to find... a diamond!

2. (I'm sorry there are no pictures) trace your diamonds onto the fleece and cut enough to line the spine of the onesie. I used 9 on a 3-6 month onesie.

3. draw a line (oops, forgot to mention you need a pencil and straight edge) where you want the spine to run (you can fold it in half side-to-side to find the middle).

4. line up and pin your diamonds on the line, from top to bottom. sew straight up the middle of the diamonds, using a zig zag stitch to allow the knit to stretch.

5. now, here is where things got a bit more complicated. since I didn't use felt or stabilizer, I had to figure out how to attach the edges so that... you know... it actually looked like a dino spine. so I hopped on the ever-so-trusty pinterest and searched for some nice embroidery stitch to finish off the edges (because I couldn't just use a regular blanket stitch, or sew them with a straight line on the sewing machine ... no, that would have been too easy and quick!

6. so I found this tutorial for an armenian edging stitch and spent way too long stitching along all 18 edges.

7. and since I seemed to think that I needed to spend MORE time on this onesie, I added some cute accents on the front. But let me tell you, steps 6 and 7 totally made this one! :) So much better than a straight stitch :)

Then, since I don't have a baby, I forced an unhappy Jack into it to model for me. Let me just melt your heart for a minute:

also, meet Jack!

So, I was happy with that one, but I didn't like how the spikes didn't all stand up very straight... also the stitching was a lot of work.

However, this post is longer than I expected, so stay tuned until next week for the 2nd tutorial. Again without step-by-step pictures.

See you next week!