Decorate Onesies for a Baby Shower Activity:
A Fun Craft Idea For All Skill Levels

applique heart, helicopter and moose onesies on counter

Looking for a great (non-cheesy) activity to do at a baby shower? You can decorate onesies as a fun activity that party guests can enjoy at a relaxed and casual pace. Not only do you get creative works of art at the end of the party, each onesie can be hung up on a baby clothesline to be used as part of the baby shower decorations.

What I love about this project is that at the end you will have adorable clothing that the new mommy would love to have her child wear.

I have seen onesies decorated with puff paint and markers at parties that are cute (and I am not mocking them), but if you do an actual applique of shapes or wording, you will get a much better result in the end.

I used felt for these appliques because I love the soft look that it has. But you can also follow these instructions, substituting fabric in place of the felt and you will get great results.

To decorate onesies, you will need:

Before starting out, look at your shape you are going to use. Double check that you have the shape printed it as a mirror image of itself. By the time it is ironed onto the onesie, it will be the correct direction, but if it is not flipped in the beginning, you will have a backwards shape. ;)

This heart is symmetrical, so it doesn't matter as much. But if you have an animal or letters, you will want to make sure it is correct before you start any cutting.

heart shape for onesie baby shower craft

Start out by taking the shape you are going to use for the applique and placing it under your transfer paper so the shape design shows through. Trace the shape with a pencil.

heart shape placed under heat n bond paper

Place transfer paper on the felt and cut out a square that is slightly larger than your design. Set up your ironing board and iron. Heat the iron to the wool setting. (I am using the instructions for heat n bond, so if you have a different type of transfer paper, follow the instructions that came with it.)Iron the shape a section at a time, holding the iron over it for 4-6 seconds.

traced heart on heat n bond ready to be ironed

Allow to cool for a few seconds and then cut around the shape. Peel the white paper off the back of your shape. Place on your onesie exactly where you would like it to go.

onesie on ironing board with cut out heart

Iron the shape onto your onesie. Now the directions stop there. But I like to stitch around the edge of the shape to make sure there will be no problems with it ever lifting.

applique heart being ironed onto onesie

What I did was sew a simple straight stitch along the outside edge of your shape using embroidery floss and a needle. If you haven't ever hand stitched anything, you might be a little worried about this part. But it is pretty simple. Just a straight stitch. You can also machine embroider it on if you would like....or you can give it to someone willing to do it for you. In exchange for cookies maybe. ;)

sewing applique heart onto baby onesie

There you have it! A beautiful onesie that will be cherished. Here is the heart onesie I made.

finished pink heart onesie hanging on clothesline

I also made a helicopter onesie. (My husband used to fly helicopters so I thought it would be a fun shape to use.)

finished blue helicopter onesie hanging on clothesline

And then I made a brown moose onesie. It was a really fun design to use. A side note on this one. The antlers actually "broke" on me while I was hand stitching it. There is a narrow piece of felt connecting the antlers and it actually separated. I fixed it by hand stitching the section in place. This is one of the reasons I say to make sure it is reinforced. I would hate something like that to happen after I gave it as a gift.

finished brown moose onesie hanging on clothesline
If you are decorating onesies as an activity for your baby shower, here are some tips to help you:
black and white guitar onesie

Even if you choose not to do this as a activity, appliqued onesies will still make a great baby shower gift. You can make it ahead of time and match the party's theme with the colors and designs, then hang it on a cute baby shower clothesline as part of the decor. Or just make some custom onesies and take to a baby shower as a gift. I have detailed instructions to help you make the tie and suspender onesies below.

tie and suspenders applique onesies

Here are a few more onesie ideas:

felt princess crown onesie
felt blue bird onesie
felt pink and grey flowers onesie
Best of Luck with your Project!

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