DIY: polka dot onesie

Last week, I was putting away baby clothes and noticing the fun patterns in Maggie's drawer of clothes. Then I started thinking about what was missing: polka dots! She has a few clothing items that have polka dot trim, but that's not enough polka dots (in my opinion).

So, I set out to cover at least one article of clothing in my favorite pattern. I was also determined not to buy anything for this project, so I took inventory of my craft supplies and I decided fabric markers were the way to go.

Once I had gathered my supplies, I was surprised at how quickly the onesie was finished. It was so simple! And since even a sleep deprived new mom (me) could pull it off in just minutes, I just had to share with a little tutorial.



To make the easy DIY polka dot onesie, you will need:

• onesie (I washed mine before adding the polka dots)
• fabric marker (in the color of your choice)
• lined peace of paper
• marker 

1. On a lined piece of paper, darken the lines so you can see them through the onesie fabric. I did this by using a fine marker to trace over every other line. I also cut off the frayed edge before I put it inside the onesie (it just slides better).
2. Slide the piece of paper inside the onesie. To ensure the marker would not bleed through to the backside of the onesie, I placed a magazine page behind the lined paper. It may not be necessary, but I wasn't taking any chances.
3. Starting at the collar of the onesie, align the paper so you can see the lines are even. You will use the lines as a guide for the polka dots. As you make your first row, try to go the whole way across the top of the onesie, just under the collar; I filled in the dots above the full line after it was complete (note: be careful to just touch the tip of the marker to the fabric and don't let it linger or you'll likely get a bigger dot than you want).
4. Continue with the dots, using the lines as your guide. Under one row of dots, space them about halfway between the previous row to create a diagonal pattern once the polka dot pattern is complete. Keep going until you have covered the whole front of the onesie.

It would also be cute to do a variation with multiple dot colors or even a smaller section of the onesie with polka dots. I might even take on putting polka dots on the sleeves in the future.

Have you done any do-it-yourself projects lately?