Faux Baby Vest Tutorial For Beginners

I love this idea, and since I'm learning to sew I thought I would give it a try. I found this great tutorial, but I didn't care so much for it. It is a GREAT page to teach you how to draw the pattern.
I don't like how she uses two pieces of fabric for one side of the vest, it seemed to bulky. If you are doing a toddler shirt, it wouldn't be bad. Might of been easier if I have an iron maybe. I thought I would find an easier way to make one and I did.

I followed her directions, but before I went cutting any fabric, I cut paper. Once I got something that would fit, I drew it on the camo fabric I was using. The pink line is what will be seen, the blue line gives me sem allowance

 

 

Once I cut it, I folded the sides and made sure my fold line was on the pink line. You should probably iron it at this point but I don't own an iron (crazy since I sew but true) so I just pinned everything.

 

As long as you hold it tight when you sew, it shouldn't be as loose and wrinkly as it is here.

 

 

This is how it looked after I sewed it. In this picture, you can see I cut and allowed myself more sew room, but it's easy to cut. If you do the 1/4 inch thing, you shouldn't have to cut. Unless you want to of course.

 

 

After it was cut!

 

Now, I couldn't get my fabric to round nicely like the lady does in the tutorial, so I cut a little bit where I needed and folded it over like so. You can also see I made this a little too big, so when I sewed it on the onesie, I just pinned this over a tad more to make things more even.

 

 

I pinned the vest to the onesie, I would recommend starting at the side sem line. The Gerber onesie stretches a lot and easily so be careful not to over stretch thing, or it won't sew evenly and make wrinkles.

 

After both sides are sewn on you're done. This is my underside! I show you this incase it happens to you. The two vest met at the thickest points and the machine didn't want to push it through. It was weird but I simply put to a few stitches (then back stitch and stitch again) at the top and bottom.

 

Since I didn't sew the whole line it created this...

 

 

Which isn't a problem as long as you sew buttons on (yes, I will be adding some to mine, maybe orange?).

 

 

 

TADA!!!!! My baby vest onesie!!! I'm super excited about this, if you can't tell! It took a lot of practice, and if you're new at sewing I would recommend doing this on a Carter onesie. The Gerber onesies have a lot of flex which can make it difficult when putting it through the machine. I messed up on two of them and when you rip the thread out, it tears. I don't know why, but it does; any suggestions on how to make this easier would be awesome.

 

If you can't get the vest pieces on evenly (because of error cutting and drawing) you can always draw the pattern on the onesie. I know they make special 'fabric pins' that wash off, but I always use plain Crayola markers. They wash out of cloths and are cheap.

 

I hope you like!!!!! If you have any tips that might make this easier, I'd love to know because I plan to make these for every little baby boy I know.

 

 



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Marker Art

My aunt taught me how to do this when I was really young. I thought it was awesome but it took a long time to be able to do them well. I will start these when my daughter and I have coloring time, but never finish them. I thought I would complete one when I found a bunch of markers.

First I used tracing paper to get my design and name on the cardstock, but you can also use regular computer paper.

I then outlined everything with a fine point black marker. This is to keep the orange from bleeding into the color I use first. You don't have to do this step, I just prefer it, helps keep the design neat. I than colored the inside orange.

I looked a bunch of different brown and greens together before choosing which combination I wanted. Then I started outlining the outline. You alternate colors and keep doing this until it all connects. In the end it kind of makes its own design.

You don't have to use just two colors. I like to do this in rainbow, or whatever color my daughter picks out next for me.  You can also do simple writing, with out having the colored in part. It's really up to your own creativity.

 

 

ALL DONE!! Hope you enjoy!! This is a simple thing to make, but it does take time. Usually my hand hurts before I get tired of drawing.

 

My Two Awesome Ideas

Any body else have kids that LOVE stickers? Since we rent I try to direct my daughter to sticking them on anything BUT the walls. I guess I have nobody but myself to blame since I am the one who gave them to her. She does good though (knock on wood)!!!

Since I had so many stickers laying around that she deemed hers, I needed to come up with some type of storage. I was honestly getting tired of picking up the sheets every five minutes so my nine month old didn't try to eat them. One day I was picking them up and saw a DVD case that was specifically my daughter. It just clicked that it would be a GREAT way to store her stickers.

You could also add paper to one side so they can stick them to it (awesome for long car rides). If the paper of stickers didn't fit, I just cut to make it fit, no biggie!! I left my daughters plain for two reasons; one it was like 9:30 when I decided to do this for her and didn't have much creative energy left for the day to doll it up, and two I thought I would let her decorate it. She literally has layers of stickers on it now!!

I love this idea. My brother-in-law lives with us and sometimes I need to put names on food. That way everyone gets their food and lunch. I was trying to figure out a way with out using a sticky note or paper/tape, I tried this and it works. The markers I have don't wipe off too easily but easy enough.
This would be great to do with things that need dates. You could put eat by.., cooked on...., or if you do a weekly thing could put what day of the week it's for. I thought it was awesome and now do quite often!


Hope you enjoy!!!!