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Activity #138: Decorate baby clothes with fabric paint
This picture might look more glamorous than our lives really are, but these are actual bodysuits made for Holden at Heather’s baby shower, which I hosted.
My college friend Meg, an advanced mom and author of The Rug Merchant (link provided for those who are looking to read quality fiction that is not about babies), emailed me to ask for tips on replicating this activity for her sister’s shower. Here’s the advice I shared with her for baby shower purposes:
- Provide stencils, easily found at Michael’s, so that everyone can feel successful in their design ability.
- Use wax paper as a non-stick surface to put fabric paint on and dab with your paint brushes. Also insert a piece between the two layers of the clothing so that the artwork does not bleed through.
- Offer only 4-6 colors of paint so that there is a common color palette amongst all the shirts
- Use a Sharpie to put each guest’s initials on the tag of the onesie they decorated so that mom knows who they’re from
- Set up a clothing line with clothes pins so that the finished work can be displayed and appreciated while it dries
- When the onesies are dry, fold them neatly, stack them and tie with a ribbon. Deliver them to the new mom.
Meg reported from Albuquerque that this activity worked out fantastically and the shower was a success. Now she’s just waiting for that nephew to show up.
Photo credit: Heidi Swanson
by Whitney in Crafty, Month 5, Prenatal |
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(2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)
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July 6th, 2006 at 6:06 pm
This is *such* a great idea! I mentioned it to my friend today — another friend and I are giving her a shower in a coupla months — and she loved it!
January 10th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Does anyone know whether or how well these wash?
January 14th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
hi!
it is a great ideea i think this! i’m from Romania and i want to start a bussines with that.
thx!
January 25th, 2007 at 9:16 am
The fabric paint onesies wash very well — the iron-on ones can be a little touch-and-go. Here is some excellent inspiration for fun designs on freezer paper stenciled onesies from Kirstencan
April 25th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
I used the dimensional fabric paint on the bottom of my 8 month old son’s socks to make them non skid. My husband is concerned that the Tulip Fabric paint may be toxic if my baby decided to chew on one of the socks. I can’t find any answer to this. Can you help
April 25th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
According to the material safety information on the Duncan Crafts website, it is not toxic to ingest a little, but I wouldn’t let your baby down the bottlehttp://www.duncancrafts.com/ProductDetails.aspx?id=1b8b6fec-ff81-4eec-afd5-7e4fd7fc31f8
ps From there, I searched the pdf for the word “toxic” and found it on page 3. It seems to be ok… but I want to make very clear that I’m not a lawyer and I don’t work for them and I got nuthin’ to do with it.
July 18th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
We did this for a friend’s shower last year - the results were darling & daring (a co-ed shower, so the male POV was well represented). Despite carefully heat-setting and following all the directions after one wash the mom reported that all the designs were so faded you couldn’t tell what they were. We were so disappointed. I recommend doing a test run before the shower so you know everything works well.
August 1st, 2007 at 5:36 pm
Could you also tell us which brand paint worked well, please?
August 7th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
I have done this at showers before and it IS a great idea. One time we let kids do it, though, and that was a huge mess so if you’re going to do that I recommend heavy supervision.
Also, you can use fabric screenprinting paints if you want, in which case if you iron the garments under a piece of paper for about 2 minutes once dry, the print will last forever- like a professionally painted t-shirt. Have fun!
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:16 am
I love this idea! I’m planning a shower for my younger sister will definitely use this as one of the activities. Any ideas on where to purchase plain onesies in bulk? And what is the best type of fabric paint to use for this?