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:
- Wash and dry the onesies before the party (no fabric softener) to make the designs stick well.
- 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 (24 hours), 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.
Spring the shopping listPhoto credit: Heidi Swanson
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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!
Does anyone know whether or how well these wash?
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
hi!
it is a great ideea i think this! i’m from Romania and i want to start a bussines with that.
thx!
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
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.
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.
Could you also tell us which brand paint worked well, please?
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!
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?
I have decorated t-shirts before both with freehand painting and with rubber stamps (large bold images work best). You can use regular craft paint (stencil paint or whatever) to paint the images. The only trick is that you will need to heat set it. Putting the shirt or burp cloth in the dryer on high for 15 minutes heat sets the paint and then you’re good to go. I have never used fabric paint and everything I have made turns out great. Note – never use too thick of paint – it will crack later and be too scratchy to wear. Make sure you always paint in thin layers.
Oh we did this at the baby shower for my second boy and I just LOVED putting them on him and remembering that my friends made them for my little guy. Such a WONDERFUL idea, really! So glad you shared it with others!
Crayola makes fabric pens that also work really well for decorating onesies, especially if you don’t have room to hang them all up to dry. The pens aren’t as precise as paint, but I think stencils would be really helpful The onesies turned out darling! It’s amazing how creative people can be, given some markes and a white surface.
We did this for my little one at my baby shower. My sister very thoughtfully got several sizes of onesies for the process, so Baby will have new hand decorated onesies every few months until she gets into 18 mo sizes. They all turned out really well. I made a list of who made which one, so that as she wears them, I can email my friends pictures of Baby in the onesie that they decorated.
We did this for my baby shower last year and the results were great. We used Tulip fabric paint (not the glittery kind, though..wasn’t sure if the glitter would rub off) with stencils. I also had some foam stamps that I found in the wall stencil section of Michaels that worked really well too and were less messy than the stencils. Some guests chose to do freehand designs too. I waited several days before washing and the colors did not fade. My baby actually wore several of them. One problem was that if the fabric paint was too clumpy it made for a stiff and sometimes scratchy design so we ended up just using those for decorating. If you want to see the result, you can see them here:
http://sliceofpizzapie.blogspot.com/2007/07/one-little-two-little-three-little.html
A followup to my earlier comment…If kids are going to be doing this activity it can get messy as Karen commented. If kids are doing it (or clumsy and messy adults), I suggest letting them wear an old tshirt over their clothes. If you’re using fabric paint it won’t wash off if they accidentally get it on their clothes, since the point of fabric paint is that it’s supposed to stay ON the fabric. My friend’s little girl got a little smudge of red paint on her pretty white party dress and sadly, it was pretty much ruined forever.
That sounds like a great idea. I will do that for my bff’s baby shower this fall! Thanks for sharing.
That’s a great idea! My wife has lots of pregnant friends, and this would be a great baby shower activity!
I love this idea and we are planning on doing it for a friend’s upcoming shower. No one has mentioned the type of fabric paints to use (except Tulip)? Can someone suggest a paint that is good to use on baby onesies — “organic,” non-toxic, etc. – that will wash well and not harm the baby’s skin? Eager to hear from someone. thank you!
A good idea. Decorating kids clothes with fabric paints. They look so dull in white colors. By adding these colors they are looking attractive.
Jane
According to Michael’s
How long does it take for fabric paint to dry?
That depends on how thick the paint is. For a typical application of Tulip® Dimensional Fabric Paint, allow 24 hours to dry and 72 hours to cure completely before washing.
Do fabric paints need heat setting?
No, most fabric paints, including Tulip® and Scribbles® brand fabric paints do not require heat setting.
What is the best way to care for fabric painted pieces?
For garments, refer to the care instructions. If painted on yardage, refer to the fabric bolt. If the garment or fabric can be machine washed, turn inside out and use warm water on gentle cycle with a mild detergent and fabric softener in a warm rinse. Cold water may cause fabric paint to crack. Line dry. Do not dry clean. Do not use harsh detergents or bleach.
I would like to puchase tops and bottoms to decorate n small sizes . Does any one have a source for these that they would like to share ?
I have used all brands of fabric paints for years with no problems. However, I just painted with Tulip colorpoint paintstitching on cotton, and the paint is still tacky to the touch after 2 weeks. I need a solution – any suggestions? Thanks
I want to give all the guest at my sister’s baby shower onesis to draw on for my sister to have. Does anyone know were to buy bulk of onesis. I can even do bibs or tee shirts. Just cant find them.
I went to Target and bought Bibs. They have Plain colored ones for 11 dollars and you get 10.
I love this idea and want to do it for my sister-in-law’s shower. Does anyone know where to find blank onesies in lots of different sizes? Thanks!!
There are lots of companies you can buy t-shirts and onesies in bulk but you really have to buy A LOT. And the quality isn’t that great.
You can get gerber white onesies at Walmart or Target but I prefer to use Carter’s onesies or their other brand Child of Mine. You can get a set of 5 white Child of Mine onesies at some Walmarts. You can get Carter’s at their outlet store, if you have one close by, or from Toys R Us.
Wow these are adorable! Have you checked out wholesale organic baby clothing by Colored Organics. They have the highest quality onesies I have found, they are a US company ( which I love to support! ) and they have great styles and colors. I also really like that they have tagless onesies so I can sew my own label in the garment.
I actually was planning on doing this for my sisters shower that we are having in Jan. I got the idea from the popular show Gilmore Girls…..im just not sure where to buy the onsies from.
I just had my baby shower this past week and we had a onesie painting activity. What a success!! Everyone loved painting them and got really creative.
We bought various sizes (newborn, 3 mths, 6 mths, 9 mths, 12 mths and 18 mths) so the baby can wear them for at least a year. We made sure to wash the onesies the night before the baby shower and used the “Marvy Uchida” fabric markers with bold tip.
Everything turned out amazing. The markers dried out that same day and now we are super excited to use them once the baby arrives.
We also plan to take a picture as the baby wears each onesie and send them to each person who created them as a way to say thanks!
Here’s some info on fabric painting onesies…