WIP: Onesie Quilt

A little while ago, my friend was asking me how she would go about making a t-shirt quilt from her toddler's baby onesies. Oh my gosh, I thought to myself, that sounds adorable! I want to do that!!. So I asked, and surprise surprise, she was totally cool with passing off the job to me :)

So I've been busy turning her stack of onesies into quilting squares....

It took a little longer than I expected :)

Basically she sent some of the most adorable outfits I've ever seen:

Pretty cute, right?

Well, I didn't want to lose some of the cuter elements - like the puffy shoulders - but needed to get a little creative in somehow making them reach the 5" square size I was cutting. So I decided to topstitch these pieces to some other fabric to help bring them up to size. Here's how you do it:

Pin your onesie on top of the fabric you are using as the "base". (Both of them should have some lightweight fusible Pellon on them to help stabilize the stretchy knit fabric. I had the best luck when I used onesie fabric for the base, as well, instead of a much thinner quilting cotton.)

Sleeve and neck openings have thick edging. Instead of stitching through all those layers, I just stitched next to them.  Using your zipper foot, use a matching thread to stitch as close to the edging as possible.

Trim the base fabric down to size. All done! I think these blocks add a lot of character and interest to an otherwise simple quilt.

I hope to be back with some finishes tomorrow :)