How to upcycle old, stained baby onesies

This post was also featured on The Stir by CafeMom.

No matter how many times you say you don’t want characters or stupid sayings, there’s always the one great aunt or twice-removed friend of your grandma’s who gets you the tackiest kid clothes with the ugliest characters or sayings on them.

And then there are the stains that don’t quit. And of course, they’re always right up near the face, where the baby puked or tried to feed himself blueberries and now you have a nice, light blue souvenir stain of that one meal two years ago. (And for some reason, those kid clothes stains get even worse after they’re stored in the garage for a couple years.)

Don’t throw them away.

Welcome to my tutorial all about how to upcycle old, stained baby onesies! (Your day just got more exciting, didn’t it?!?)

All it takes is a few fabric scraps and a few minutes. I used my sewing machine, but if you don’t sew, you could carefully iron the pieces and then use fabric glue to secure them to the onesie.

And it literally cost me nothing.

(If you don’t have fabric scraps, go to a fabric store and ask for a “fat quarter.” It’s basically a bunch of beautiful, coordinating fabrics that are each only a one-fourth of a yard of fabric. And cheap.)

The fun thing is, you can get creative! You have nothing to lose because you were probably going to trash the onesies anyway. No rules, just have fun with it.

For instance, you can see in the picture that none of my fabric scraps are perfectly-centered, and all of them came out a little imperfect. Who cares? The onesie is going to be worn by someone who craps himself and drools all day. It doesn’t need to be perfect. Again, it was stained, or marked with “I’m A Boob Man” before. Anything is an improvement.

All I did was cut each fabric scrap, steam iron the whole scrap, then steam iron the ends under, pin it on the onesie and sew along the edges. So easy! I even got creative and added a faux tie for my little man too. Isn’t it the cutest?

If you don’t have stained onesies, or family with really tacky taste, this is also a great tip if you’re looking to upcycle some second-hand onesies, like hand-me-downs from friends or scores from the Goodwill.

At the end of the project, you’ve spent a half hour utilizing some of your favorite fabric scraps, which you’ll get to enjoy seeing day after day on your little one. Plus, you’ve avoided throwing away some onesies.

All the more money for what you’ll really need it for. Diapers.

How have you upcycled your baby onesies? Share your ideas in the comments section below.