Lucky in Love Onesie - a Tutorial

Saint Patricks Day has a special place in my heart - it's the day I was SURE my daughter would be born.  Like, SURE.  But she had other plans, as I've found children always do - and always will.  ;)

But even though Emmy was born on the 19th, I feel like she is still an Irish type soul... Like, in 20 years, she'll be a Guinness girl as opposed to a Pabst girl.   I can hope at least, right?

So anyway... Here is the Lucky in Love Onesie Tute!  Enjoy!

You Will Need:

• A white Onesie, or a white tee shirt
• One pack of Dylon Dye in 'Tropical Green', or similar
• Tulip Matte Fabric Paint in 'Lime', or similar
• Freezer paper
• Paint brush or foam brush, per your preference
• Iron, ironing board
• This image printed out: [or similar] *Click shamrock for full-size image*

Source

• Patience to let your finished Onesie tumble dry completely before taking photos  :/

Complete disclosure:  After I finished this, Jonas (the Hubs) asked "why didn't you just dye the Onesie and then paint it?"  To which I explained that I didn't know how the paint was going to react, if at all, to the dye bath, and I was curious.  But I can tell you that the color of the paint did not change, and if you want to dye first - then paint - you will get what I think would be the same result.  K?  K.

Ok, let's go!

First, print out your shamrock [or draw one, or whatevs].  I printed this one just as is, no scaling, and it came out pretty big!  You may need to scale it down if you're making an itty bitty Onesie.  Mine here is an 18 monther. 

Cut out your printed shamrock and trace it onto a piece of freezer paper.  Make sure to leave yourself a wide enough border of freezer paper outside the shamrock, so as to avoid any painting overzealousness mishaps.  Trust.  I'll explain this further below.



Traced!

 Be sure that you are tracing your shamrock onto the matte side of the freezer paper, not the shiny side.  See here:


Shiny side down.


Now, jab a hole into the middle of your shamrock and start cutting it out!  See all the room I left around the shamrock?  This will be trimmed later on, but make sure you have plenty'o'extra.  [Or, if you've done this before and aren't klutzy like me, just go ahead and cut it however you normally do :]

Snip snip!



Snip snip snip!


Save your scraps to cut out the little heart!

All cut out:

What's happening to my desk?

Cut out a wee little heart from your scraps:

Ok, now you want to set everything up for pressing.  I slid my Onesie onto the narrow end of my ironing board.  If you are working with a smaller Onesie, you may not want to do this because you don't want to stretch or distort the fabric.  If that is the case for you, just lay it flat and smooth on top of your ironing board.  No problemo.

Now with the shiny side down, position the freezer paper stencil where you want it on your Onesie.  I made mine a little off center and a little tilted.

Press the stencil onto your Onesie with high heat [cotton setting] and NO steam.  [I ironed on the shamrock first, then positioned and pressed the little heart after.]  Move the iron slowly, but not too slow, and apply plenty of pressure.  I pressed for about 3 or 4 minutes.

Cute!

Now we paint!  You'll want to slide a piece of paper or cardboard into the Onesie so that your paint won't bleed through:

Gloop!

When I paint with this stuff, I like to use this kind of brush (below).  It seems to create a smoother finish, in my experience.  Some prefer a sponge dabber thing, or a foam brush.  Up to you, really!

Tread lightly around the edges - you don't want to inadvertantly flick any of the stencil up.  And see how I've left myself plenty of extra freezer paper for wiley brushstrokes?  :)

Now, per the paints' instructions, apply 2 coats and let it dry for 4 hours.  Did I let it dry for 4 hours?  No.  Do I ever follow instructions?  No.  So I just put it under a warm desk lamp for about an hour.  As soon as it wasn't tacky anymore, I moved on.  Do I recommend this?  No.  My results were perfect, but everyones' individual experience could be different.  To ensure the proper outcome, follow the instructions.  ;)

While you're waiting for the paint to dry, familiarize yourself with the instructions for the dye that you're using.  Don't mix it yet, just ready yourself.


Mmm, tropical... :)


When you are satisfied with the dryness of your paint, peel off your stencil!  Be very careful, work slowly.  To get the little heart up, I had to use tweezers.  No damage done, thank goodness :)

Tada!:

Hi!

Now, set your paint by pressing with a press cloth, or any other type of thin fabric.  Press on high, no steam, with pressure.

Pressing with press cloth.

Press until your paint looks nice and smooth and pretty!

OOoh!

Now get your dye ready!  Definitely follow the instructions here!  You don't want to mess around with this stuff.  Pardon the eewie state of my sink.

Fun!

Little shamrock friend!

Took it out for a second to take a peek!  Lookin' good!

From my experience with these fabric dyes, the color you see your fabric taking on in the dye bath is quite a bit darker than your result will be [plus, being wet it'll def look darker].  So I generally leave the fabric in for a bit longer than it looks like it needs.

Rinse your Onesie as per the dye instructions.  I then tumble dried mine with a few dark colored towels.

THAT'S IT!  You're all done! 

Those darker lines near the bottom there are from my dryer impatience... It was still a little damp, hence the creases & color wonkatude.

Precious!

I hope you enjoyed this tute!  Let me know if you have any questions!

If you make one, shoot me a line!  I'd love to see it!

Cheers!

[Partying HERE!]