Appliqued Onesies

The first grandbaby for Cody's side of the family is on the way, our first niece! Well I guess technically she will be our second-cousin? No matter what our name is, we can't wait to meet her and watch her grow! Now I abosultey ADORE baby shopping, but I sorta got all sentimental with this one and wanted to make something for her. So off to Jo Ann's & Target I went. Picked up multi-packs of onesies and a handful of fat quarters and got to work doing some applique embellishing. I also found the cutest ruffled jeans that I couldn't pass up. I pre-washed everything to (hopefully) ensure the appliques don't get all scrunchy and off down the road when baby girl spits up all over them ;) 

By the way, I'm starting to really enjoy ironing--shocking--but with some good music or a chick flick/tv show on its totally therapeutic. 

I also purchased felt buttons at Jo Ann's, how baby friendly is that?? I layered a few for that button flower look. Stitched wide ribbon also works well for an appliqued band across the front for those of us who don't cut straight lines (myself included). Just make sure you don't buy wired ribbon!

I played around with a few sizes for the heart patches, I cut my own with the old fold over trick. Experiment with placement too, patches (I think) are cute on little kid patooties. For the lady bug & elephant patterns, I just googled 'animal (or ladybug/elephant) applique pattern' and there are tons to choose from. I bet you could also trace something out of a childrens book or coloring page if you happen to have those lying around. 

And if you're itching for more pics, here are some terrible shoot-quick-before-the-battery-dies shots to give you an idea of how many combos you can get with just 4 fat quarters. Well, one of the fat quarters was one of those fake quilt motifs, which really gave me more options! I tried to vary which fabric was used for each grouping: 0-3 month, 3-6 month & 6-9 month (each ended up with 3 onesies and 1 pair of jeans).

And then I packaged them into a girly storage basket, hopefully Mommy doesn't have to too many already!

And I actually have a lot of fabric left over too! I will have to think of something for that, anyone else having a baby girl soon? Oh and there are tons of manly options for little boys too--appliqued ties, robots, 3-eyed aliens....

So whether or not you're a mom--I'm curious, in your opinion what's the best baby shower gift?