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Ombre Hombre

CRAFTS

Boys can rock ombre too.  Or a gradient.  Or whatever you chicks wanna label it.

Boys don’t care what you call it…they just wanna have a cool onesie to show off to all their diapered girlfriends.  And yes, babies have significant others…so don’t whatthewhat me.  This is a serious post.

As a mother to two boys, I have found it irritating that the girls section in most children’s clothing stores is 99.99999% of the square footage and options.  The remaining hanger found in the back corner underneath the packing supplies holds the one green boys onesie that is usually boasting a gigantic dog with fuzzy 3D ears wearing a baseball hat while licking a dinosaur riding a toy train while the rear end says roar.   No wonder Weston prefers being naked.  Tummy time fashion is important people.

Dang that smile kills me.

Anyhoo…in another life I would have designed clothing for boys.  It’s a fact.  Note that I didn’t say people would buy it.

So I decided to make my little guy a long sleeved onesie that would be simple and cool.  A man’s onesie, if you will.

All you need to make this project is a onesie, a stiff bristel brush, some Frog Tape, a piece of cardboard and your three shades of Martha Stewarts craft paint (or any other brand of fabric paint).

I started out by putting the cardboard up into the onesie.  The paint may run through the thin fabric and you don’t want it to bleed onto the back layer.  Now you are gonna tape off your middle stripe.  I used the little arm pits to mark what the top is…that way the stripe would look relatively even.

I used my bright middle color first to do the middle stripe.  It’s important to do a stippling action with the brush.  Basically you are loading up the brush and bouncing it onto the fabric….don’t wipe the paint on because then it could pull the fabric or Frog Tape causing an uncrisp line.

It’s important to do the coverage as well as you can.  If something doesn’t look as dark in paint, then stipple stipple stipple.  Don’t wipe.  It’s detrimental to your health.

Have I stressed that enough?!

(sorry about the iphone photos…)

Now its time to make that gradient…simply add a couple more pieces of tape. One on top and one on the bootom.  I liked to do this step right away because I have the perfect ‘spacers’.

Now I put one piece of Frog Tape over that middle blue and peeled away anything that wasn’t useful.  Also, you can see that I just made the tape long enough to stick the ends right to the countertop.  That helped the onesie stay put.  Beyonce knows how important it is to have tape and tension to keep a onesie in place….I mean, did you see her Superbowl outfit?!  Girl must be getting tips from Blue Ivy.

Did you see how I also taped off the arms?  I felt like that way the stripe would be just across the chest of the outfit.  Now you stipple your lighter color paint on the top stripe…

And the darker color paint on the bottom stripe.

And when you peel the painters tape off, it should be nice and crisp lines with a ombre look.   Cuter than a sack full of old couples in matching clothing holding hands at Disney World, if you ask me.

Things to note, this is safe for baby to wear but I would suggest letting it full dry and then washing it first.  The paint may fade a little from washing but in my house, fade is another word for ‘distressed’ and we pay extra for that…much to my Pappap’s dismay.

The end result is totally cute, right?! I think this would be such a darling craft to do at a baby shower or as a homemade gift for a friend or family member.  It was fast and easy…and I must admit, I now have this rabid look in my eye to paint all Weston’s clothes.  No plain onesies are safe in this house.  Happy Painting!

p.s.  This is a sponsored post brought to you by FrogTape for Bower Power’s Frog Tape Fridays. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.

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Comments

  2. SO cute! I think this would be an awesome project to do at a baby shower too (in various colors) and the mom-to-be would get a bunch of fun stripey onesies for her little boy!

  3. So cute! What a great idea, you’re so right about the lack of boys clothes out there. Although, I must admit that I hate a lot of the girls clothes too. If I see one more “Mommy’s Little Cupcake (Ladybug, Fairy, Princess, Flower)” onesie I will lose my mind!

  4. I talk all of the time about how I wish I could design William’s clothes, but I have NO idea how to sew, so that’s not happening anytime soon. I’m so over sleepers that say “I love Mommy” and “Daddy’s Best Friend” and have puppies, dinosaurs, etc. on them. I want some plain, cute, patterned sleepers and onesies without sayings on them.

  6. I love it! He’s such a smiley baby, too.

    Will you be instagramming him modeling it? #prettyplease #refreshingmyinstagramfeedallday

  7. You are totally right! The boys’ clothing section is sparse compared to the girls’ section. It’s slim pickins. This is a cute project, I may try to replicate it myself. I have made my little ones some cute shirts using freezer paper stencils in the past, too 🙂

  8. I love this! We will be getting a bunch of plain onesies for our baby, so I can’t wait to jazz them up with paint. Thanks for sharing!

  9. That is adorable! Sorry, I meant it is very manly (ahem). 🙂

    I totally agree on the boy’s section in clothing stores. It is much better than it used to be thankfully. My nephew’s are now 19 and 18 (my sister had them when I was like, 1, obviously…) and my sister would complain about that all the time. My little guy has definitely had an easier go than them but you usually have to pay more to get any decent style. Great idea to just make it yourself!

  10. Love the idea! we are expecting our first little guy and I can’t stand the baseballs, firetrucks, dogs, dinosaurs or cars that are everywhere and I really hate the “Mommy’s #1 fan, Mommy’s helper ect. shirts that are the other option.
    We started to use printable iron on decals to decorate our onsies. So fun to be able to put whatever you want on your son’s chest.

  12. I love this project! As a mother of a boy, I totally agree with your frustrations on the amount/cuteness of boys clothes available in stores. Great idea about doing this at baby showers!

  13. I considerate it an advantage that the selection of boys’ clothes is sooooo much less than for girls. There is less temptation to spend your money on something that will be outgrown in weeks. Consignment shops are my friends, and the good ones only accept clean, quality stuff (mostly without fuzzy dog ears and train farts). Always buy clothes the color of dirt.

  15. Pull out some of the fabrics you used on your Christmas tree and make some appliques, too. I can see Weston rocking a white onesie with a striped elephant or a polka-dotted giraffe. 🙂

  16. Nice! I totally relate to the lack of cute boy clothing. Why is that? I mean, we mommies are girls, doing the buying, we want cute!

  17. Love this idea! That picture of Weston is adorable. He is going to be pretty darn handsome when he grows up.

  19. Cute! I just went to a baby shower last weekend and they had onesies and bibs, paint markers and stencils and had everyone make one for the baby!

  22. Your baby makes me wanna have justonemore baby boy. I have 2 already. And a baby girl. But just look at that face….Melt.

  24. Katie, great Frog Tape Friday post! I totally agree about boys clothes. I have to tell you though, I found a different use for frog tape. I had bought some for a canvas painting project that I did for my kitchen. I did a chevron pattern and used frog tape to tape it off. I loved it! The frog tape worked great. But I also found out that it works great as a bandage for my dog. She had this place on her hip that I put medicine on. In order to keep the medicine on, I had to bandage it. The ACE bandages kept falling off. So I broke out the frog tape and taped the gauze on her. The frog tape was perfect because it was just sticky enough to keep the gauze on all night but not sticky enought to pull any hair out when I took it off the next morning. So that’s my frog tape Friday story. Weird I know, but it worked! 🙂

    Happy Friday everyone!

  25. Yay so fun! You and I must be in tune, as I just spent the last few evenings whipping up some adorable manly onesies for my besties new baby. This ombre one of yours is adorable.

    I made a little man tie onesie, a onesie with aviators ‘clipped on’ , and a home town lovin’ onesie that were so fun. I want to make more now, and have that same feeling that the rest of the plain onesies are NOT SAFE from crafting hands.

    I used my new silhouette machine, and am very proud of the results: http://justawhimsicalworld.blogspot.com/2013/02/silhouette-portrait-fabric-interfacing.html

  26. At my baby shower we tie dyed onesies because I knew about this issue. Tie dyed onesie + overalls = cute every time (and gender neutral!)

  28. That picture of Weston makes my ovaries ache. And in fact makes me believe I could love a second child as much as my first. I’m getting closer and closer to being ready.

    Cute onsie too 🙂

  29. OMGosh, it is killing me how much Weston is a mini Jer. If I had a little one I would totally did this considering I’m obsessed with ombre (still.)

    Cute, cute, cute!!

  30. O.K., that’s darling, Katie. Now …. WHERE is the rest of Weston’s birth story?! LOL! WHAT happened after your sister passed out? You sure know how to keep the suspense going …. 🙂

  31. P.S. Is it weird that a total stranger can’t wait to hear your birth story? LOL. This Momma of 4 is on the edge of her seat waiting. O.K. Not really. But, it is universally true, that once a Momma, always up for a baby story! 🙂 Glad he’s here and perfect and healthy (and so cute!). Hope your sissy has recovered from the trauma!

  32. Uhm. I never knew the word “stipple!” I absolutely thought you were making it up. I absolutely thought it was hilarious. Not sure what I think is funnier: this silly-sounding word you made up, or the fact that IT IS REAL.

    Stipple stipple stipple!

    Also, cute onesie! ! ! This would be a great way to re-make onesies that have those ubiquitous spaghetti sauce stains.

  37. AHHH! As a fellow mama of two boys, I feel a serious need to immediately grab a paint brush and start painting all of their clothes! Why have I not thought of this before?! I totally feel you on the lack of clothes for little boys. What’s up with that?
    Also, you make adorable children. Those little cheeks are just too precious!
    Thanks for the awesome post!

    ~Abby =)

  38. Katie, I don’t think I’ve ever commented here before, but I have been a reader for QUITE sometime. I was definitely following during your long journey to get pregnant with Weston and I can’t even begin to describe the tears that fell from my eyes when you posted the video announcing that you were pregnant. Your appreciation for the community that rallied around you simply astounded me. There really is no other word for it. Astounding.

    Anyway, that picture of Weston smiling above really caught my eye. He looks so much like your boyfriend. The idea of seeing the face of my husband in our baby has alluded me for quite sometime. Long story, short: we tried to get pregnant for 2 years, things fell apart, we are now separated.

    I just wanted to say that it touches me to see your husband’s face in Weston. I can only imagine the pure joy and love that it brings to your heart. You are a lucky girl, but I’m pretty sure you already knew that 🙂

  43. What a cool idea. I never thought to paint a onesie. I totally agree about boys’ clothes. Hard to find classic pieces. Why they think every boy needs a wardrobe of monkeys and bears is beyond me.

  44. First things first. Weston is so cute it doesn’t matter what he’s wearing. He looks like Jeremy to me. When my son and his wife were expecting my first grandchild I could not wait to buy baby clothes. I bought both girl and boy clothes because I was so impatient to wait until we could find out what the baby would be. Knowing how hard it was to come by boy clothes, I bought everything I saw for a little boy that I thought was cute and wound up with more boy clothes than girl clothes because cute girl clothes can be found so easily. Well, the little one was a baby girl after all, so I took back those clothes and of course, had tons to choose from. I don’t understand why the little boy clothes are so hard to find. I mean, don’t these clothes designers ever have little boys?!

  47. It’s worse when you live in a remote isolated country and you don’t get Baby Gap and Old Navy and Target etc.etc. I’m seriously missing out : (
    I drew some aviators onto some black felt and sewed this vertically onto the neck of some plain onesies so that it looks like an arm of the sunnies are hooked into my baby’s shirt.
    I also made some cute bow tie onesies – detachable cos I used snaps. So some days he can rock purple polka dot (like Chuck Bass) or powder blue checkered. I even made some bibs with interchangeable bow ties.

    Pinterest is totes my bff for giving me all these ideas 😀

  48. i love it 😉 and i agree with the puppy’s on a skateboard with other dinosaurs are kid of overplayed in the little boy clothing department. i just might need to fashion one of these for our boy numero 2 arriving in a few weeks 🙂
    as always- you rock my ombre socks!

  49. French people have awesome boys clothes. Pricey? Yes, but you can score deals on Ebay. Du Pareil Au Meme, Petit Bateau, Catimini – all awesome and not slaves to sports, vehicles or dinosaurs. Not that those things don’t have a place or a time!

  56. This is so cute! I thought about using paint for a recent project, but nixed it in favor of iron ons for a baby shower project. We felt the same way about baby boy clothes for our friend, so we made a bunch our own! Granted, most of the images are dinosaurs and trucks, but how cute is the personalization? Word from the mama is that they cleaned up well in the wash (shouldn’t be put in the dryer)!
    http://glutenfreeglow.com/2012/10/24/eating-gluten-free-at-parties-baby-shower-crafting/

  57. I feel like I’m calling into a radio station because I’m a longtime reader and first time commentor! (: As a mom to a 4 month old baby boy I sooo laughed out loud when you explained the one outfit at the store for boys, it’s my #1 complaint about boys clothes, everything has to say something and mommy’s little monster is not what we’re going for! I love the shirt you made for your sweet baby boy.

  58. So behind in my blog reading, but I saw this today and loved the simple graphic! Just a heads up, most craft stores carry fabric medium in the paint section. You add a little to your paint, and it basically turns acrylic paint into fabric paint. It makes the paint a little more flexible, washes better too. Love the project!

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