I want to start out by saying that it's hard to believe my post from this same day, last year was about the crib quilt I made for this sweet button of a girl who will be seven months old on Sunday. Where does the time go???
Today's tutorial is for no-sew baby month appliques. Now, I know you can purchase monthly stickers, but these are more personalized, and a little different than what everyone else might be doing. These are so easy to apply that anyone can do it. You could give the appliques with a set of plain onesies as a shower gift and new mommy can iron them on herself. You wouldn't want to iron them on beforehand because it's really hard to know how big a baby will be and what size they might be wearing at a certain age. I'd recommend either giving the appliques by themselves as a gift or as I said earlier, pairing them with 12 different size onesies.
Knowing what month baby is due makes it easy to customize these around the holidays. A January month could be a blue fabric with white dots or snowflakes, February could be a red fabric with little hearts, March with green fabric for St Patty's, and so on. For whatever reason, this didn't occur to me and it's something a friend suggested to me the other day. So now, even though I have through month nine done for Zoe, I'll be redoing them to match the upcoming holidays.
I guess you're probably ready for me to get on with this so here we go!
This tutorial will work for any applique you want to do. If you decide you'd like to stitch around the applique, I'd recommend either medium or lite Heat-n-Bond. The ultra-hold will be too hard to sew through. You should be able to find Heat-n-Bond at any place that sells fabric or sewing notions. Even Wal-Mart has it.
MATERIALS
Various fabric scraps big enough for your numbers
a pen - I find a sharpie is a little easier to use
iron
INSTRUCTIONS
In Word, choose your font style and size and type out numbers 1-12. I've used Comic Sans @ 400 in BOLD for mine. Now, print them out. Print them in reverse, or in mirror image if you can.
Next, rough side down, on top of your printed numbers, trace the numbers onto the smooth, paper side of the Heat-n-Bond. IMPORTANT: if you didn't print your numbers in reverse, flip your printouts over before tracing. If you don't trace the numbers in reverse, they will be backwards once your put them on the onesie.
Now you'll cut around your numbers. Don't cut them out yet, just cut around them, leaving a 1/4 inch or so space.
I recommend cutting any open spaces in the numbers out first, before bonding. For example, the 4, 8 or 0.
Following the instructions on the back of the Heat-n-Bond package, bond your numbers to the fabrics you've chosen. Once you've bonded and let the fabrics cool, you can cut out the numbers.
Leave the paper backing on until you're ready to bond. When you are ready to bond the number to the onesie, peel the paper backing off and position it right side up on the onesie. *Using medium heat, press the iron down on the number for 6 seconds. That's it!
*If your iron is too hot, or you leave it on the applique too long, it won't bond correctly. If you do this, let it cool down a little and try again.
I love these! I've never seen it done this way before - just the stickers - but I actually like this better! Thanks for the tutorial. This makes for great gifts too :)
ReplyDeleteBrie @ Breezy Pink Daisies