Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Lettuce Edge Hem: Onesie to T-shirt in 5 minutes

Hello my name is Sara and I'm a Gymboree addict!  However, I buy everything on sale, dirt cheap at the end of the season in the size I think my little ones will be next year.  So last year when I bought the 2T onesie I guess I wasn't thinking that my daughter was going to be potty trained and how inconvenient a onesie might be on a two year old.  When I saw this tutorial at Helping Little Hands I knew what I needed to do.  Now I did practice this technique on a stained onesie before I attempted to change my daughter's shirt.  It is very easy and once you get the hang of how your machine will feeds, the zig zag stitch you will be good to go.  Plus sewing on knit was new to me!

I started with this...


And ended up with this...



First, lay your onesie flat and line up the Fiskars Clear Acrylic Quilting Ruler with the bottom of the onesie, just above the top of the legs.  Using the Fiskars Rotary Cutter  simply trim the bottom part of the onesie.  By the way I use my Fiskars 3-Piece Quilting Set almost everyday!  I think I bought it at Joann's with a coupon or something but it really makes cutting fabrics for projects much easier and helps me to make my lines straighter, which I need a lot of help with!




I would trim as close as possible to the top of the legs on the onesie if you want the shirt to be a decent length.  I probably cut mine a bit too short and would prefer that my daughter's shirt be a little longer but lesson learned for next time.  Also, remember you can alway trim off more later, you can't add it back!

Next set your sewing machine to the zig zag stitch with the widest stitch and the shortest length.  Line the fabric up like this...


I pulled the knit t-shirt from the front and the back to stretch it as far as it would go in order to make the lettuce edge hem as ruffly (is that a word?) as I could get it.  Just be careful to not pull too far from the backside as to pull your stitch.

Sew all the way around and this is what your lettuce edge hem will look like...


So easy, literally took me like less than 10 minutes, even with the trial run on the old onesie, and oh so cute!


Thank you Helping Little Hands for the idea!




Tried the lettuce edge hem?  Tell me about it!

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8 comments:

  1. Awesome job with this! And thanks for giving me the heads up. It's always fun to see if people use something they saw on my blog. I'd love it if you linked up to the Hand-Me-Down Rehab linky. I'll be doing a highlights post soon and would love to use yours as one of the ones I'll feature. http://helpinglittlehands.blogspot.com/2010/04/dino-knee-patches-tutorial-hand-me-down.html

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  2. Cute. I'm not sure if my sewing machine is that advanced, but it'd be a fun project!

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  3. Too cute!!
    Thanks for linking up to I'm Lovin' It!

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  4. I wonder if you can add a top edge, encasing some elastic, to the bottom part of the onesie, and make a piece of clothing that covers the diaper? I think the top is adorable!!!

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  5. Way over my skill level, but I love it! I wish I had your talent!!

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  6. This is so cute, and I can think of so many applications. I'm featuring it on my new blog tutorialsandpatterns.blogspot.com. Grab a "featured" button if you want.

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  7. Thank you! I was just looking at my older daughters hand me downs for my youngest who potty trained ealy. I had the same dilemma of several Gymboree onsies that needed to be turned into shirts. I am going to do this immediately. Yours look so cute. Thanks.

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  8. I'm excited to try this on a tank I have that I altered the arm holes on (now I have raw edges I need to do something with...) and this is the answer! Yahoo!!

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