DIY Iron On Onesies

How to make an iron on Onesie

What you need
Blank onesie
Iron
Firm surface
Pillowcase
Iron-on transfer paper
Design
1 (one)  borrowed cat to give you funny looks

What you do
1). Design the emblem or pretty picture you want to put on your onesie (I hear that elephants, birds and puppies are popular with the baby crowd). The design will transfer best if it is contained within an easy to cut out shape (square, circle, etc)

 2). Flip your design. Either by way of your printer, or your design program, make sure that your design is backwards (so you can place it face down and it will be pressed to the fabric correctly)

3). Print your design on iron-on transfer paper (easily found at walmart/target/online)

4). Find a hard surface and place a thin pillow case over it (like a tv tray, or something that you wouldn't be overly upset should it become accidentally burned)

5). Cut around your design as precisely as possible (the package says to leave 1/8th of an inch, I usually cut closer, but it probably doesn't make an enormous difference).

6). Place your design face down on the area you want it to permanently reside

7). Run your iron evenly and firmly (aka, stand up and carefully push hard on the iron as you go over your design, repeatedly). This always takes longer than I think it should. You should continue until all sides of the design are firmly gripping the fabric.




















7.5). Spill iron water all over your sweat pants. Leap about wildly until discovering that the water is not scalding as expected. Receive this look from your sister's cat:

8). Run your thumbnail under the edge and see if it separates easily. If it comes up, but starts to tear slightly, go over it again with the iron.

9). Slowly trace the edge of the design with your thumbnail and pull toward  the middle until the entire backing peels off.

10). Complete happy dance only to notice borrowed-cat is now giving you this look (and start to wonder whether or not borrowed-cat is secretly planning to use iron as battering ram)

 



















Interesting notes:
- The edges of my designs bled a bit, which made the outside of the circle sort of fuzzy. It worked fine with my design, but you might be mindful of that little phenomena.

- My second design was a bit of a failure- the edges didn't take nearly as well when I tried with hearts. The conclusion I drew from that is the more edges you have, the more likely you will have an issue. Stick with squares and rounds.