Monday, October 1, 2012

Turn a Onesie into a Bubble Dress

Is your baby's clothes too small? what can you do to keep those any little longer and save money? or maybe you are just want to be creative.

Grab a onesie:

Then decide on the length you’d like and cut the bottom off the onesie.

Next, decide how long you want the bubble section of the skirt to be. Then double that number and add an inch for the seam allowance. For the width, measure the bottom of the onesie all the way around and then double that number and then add an inch for the seam allowance. So, I wanted to add 4 inches of length to the bottom of my dress and the bottom of the onesie was 18 inches all the way around. So I cut a piece of knit that was 9 inches tall and 37 inches wide.

Then, fold the strip in half width-wise, with right sides together, and sew the two ends together (shown on the left). Then, fold that circle in half inside itself, with the right side facing out, matching the raw edges together (shown on the right).

Now, with the horizontal seam along the center back and the raw edges at the top, sew a basting stitch along the top front half and another along the back half, leaving the ends free for gathering. (Need help with gathering? Go here.)

Now gather up the skirt section and evenly space it along the bottom of the onesie, matching up raw edges. Pin in place and then sew. TIP: Increase your stitch length just a bit while sewing, to prevent stretching and pulling.

Now, you can either do another seam right next to the one you just did, to reinforce it, or you can do what I did next. (This will just keep it clean and finished but isn’t necessary if you’d rather not.) I folded the skirt section down and then top stitched right at the very bottom of the onesie section, making sure that the excess seam allowance from the skirt is tucked upwards and is included in this seam from the bottom.