Kid painted onesie!

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Then end of pregnancy, while chasing around a two year old, can be very exhausting and challenging.  I had to come up with fun things for my daughter to do that would engage her and where I could, in all honesty, just sit there and not have to move around too much!  My daughter was very aware that Mama had a baby in her belly.  She went to my appointments with me and sonograms.  Part of that was because we moved halfway through the pregnancy and we didn't have anyone to watch her here, but I also wanted her to learn about the awesomeness of babies and where they started out.  I think keeping her very much a part of the process was a great thing and really helped her welcome her new little brother into the family gradually, so it wasn't as big of an adjustment once he popped out!  I thought it would be great for her to have a present to give Little Man once he made his debut and even better if it was something she made.  We have TONS of white onesies from when she was a baby that were getting passed on to him.  I like to keep things simple and try to reuse what we already have, so I thought a personalized onesie would be perfect!  So, here is a......

 

Kid Painted Onesie

 

 

For this project you'll need:

 

Plain white onesies or t-shirts.  We had an assortment of sizes and I had no idea how big he would be, so we did one short sleeve shirt and one long sleeve onesie, both 3 months.  Little Lady went straight into 3 month sizes, so I figured that would be safe.

 

Fabric Painting Medium.  I used DecoArt fabric painting medium. 

 Pretty sure I just picked it up at JoAnn Fabrics.

 

Acrylic Paints.  Whatever colors you choose.

 

Cardboard, brushes, plate, tape, pencils, whatever fun things you want to paint with.  Really, have fun with it.  You're kid will get a kick out of using different things.

 

 

 

 

Little Man was due at the end of September, so I figured a fall one would be cute.  I taped a rough tree shape to give Little Lady something to work around.  I know there are much more "professional" ways of doing this, but I'm a fan of using whatever I have laying around, so I used good old blue painters tape.

 

You mix the textile medium with the acrylic paint (follow the instructions for the ratio).  You don't need much.  I also suggest putting a scrap piece of cardboard inside the shirt so the paint doesn't seep through to the back of the shirt.  I didn't do it with the first one she did, but did with the second.

 

She started out using unsharpened pencils, dipping the end in the paint and tapping it on the shirt.  She enjoyed the different use of the pencil and getting to bang it.  What kid doesn't like bashing things?

 

I had envisioned the dots representing leaves, all around the taped off tree, leaving a white tree surrounded by leaves.  Ambitious on my part.

 

 

She tired of the dots before too long.

 

Ready to move on!

 

 

Since she tired of the "leaf" circles quickly, we filled in where the tape had been with the paint to represent the tree.

 

 

This one we slid the cardboard into.

 

She used the brushes for this one, painting some areas before we put our "stencils" on.  For this one we, okay - I, cut different shapes out of tape and put them on the shirt.  Little Lady then painted over the tape with the different colors.

 

We also used this opportunity to review the different shapes and colors.

 

 

 

Follow the directions on your textile medium for drying.  Typically letting it dry for 24 hours, ironing and then tossing in the wash.

 

 

When Little Man finally arrived, she was excited to give him the presents she made for him.

 

 

 

She loved seeing him wear them.

 

 

And I did too.