Lily has already outgrown my favorites of her onesies, which I find both sad and a little shocking. Time is going so fast these days. It's almost impossible to believe that the little gnome is 3 months old next week. How did that happen?
So any way, I wanted to find a way of keeping the onesies for posterity, without just stuffing them out of the way in an old box. And since I also didn't want to frame them, I decided to design something completely different.
Which is where the 'Tag A Onesie Pillow' comes in.
The good thing about using new born clothes is that they get worn for such a short length of time that they're still in really good condition. So the three jersey onesies that I wanted to use were still good and bright and not too stretched out of shape.
Because these are Lily's clothes I didn't want to make something that was purely decorative , that she couldn't use or enjoy. I wanted to design something that she could get some pleasure out of as she continues to grow.
So instead of using a basic pillow design, I decided to incorporate different textures as well as numbers, letters and of course tags.
I started by cutting the clothes up in to strips (it's only the first cut that hurts) and then, using the correct foot and stitch for stretch fabric, I sewed them together, along with some bright red chenille.
I already had the linen tape with numbers on it, but didn't have any with the alphabet.

So I cut a couple of strips of natural linen and using a decorative stitch, created a border. I then hand embroidered the alphabet in thick red thread.
For the tags I used some more of the numbered tape as well as some gingham ribbon and some polka dot ribbon.
Once it was all pieced, I made a mini quilt sandwich with some wool batting and muslin, so that it wouldn't stretch further out of shape through use.

I used a bleached linen for the simple envelope back. But because I didn't want it to be dull, I used the same decorative stitch as on the front. I then cut closely to the stitch, to create a scalloped edge (this is going to be appearing all over my work from now on).
To finish the pillow off, I used my favourite ever Liberty print to bind it. I will never tire of finishing the pillows this way. It just gives them such a nice, crisp edge.
The great thing about this pillow is that Lily can use it for years to come, instead of her onesies just being put away out of sight. And every time I see it it will remind me of just how tiny she was and how gorgeous she looked in the onesies.
I will of course be making a quilt out of some of Lily's other baby clothes. But with onesies you're limited by the small amount of fabric and the fact that it's stretchy and not necessarily hard wearing. So I think this is the perfect answer.
From this....

To this....

I think I'm going to offer to make some custom made Tag a Onesie pillows through the Shop. So if you're interested in me doing this for you, keep your eyes open for the listing or just email me directly.