Nesting Doll Onsies - DIY Babushka Baby Shirt

A small dilemma we have had lately, is that Baby #2 is a girl but is wearing a little boy's, Baby #1's hand-me downs. I personally don't like to dress my littlest one in head to toe pink anyway, so like I said, small dilemma. I also don't want her looking like a boy so I got to thinking about how to "girlie" some of baby boy's hand me downs for my little girl. I've seem lots of ideas on Pinterest on how to doll up plain onsies to make them more interesting, but none of them were really my style.

If you read my blog, you might have seen my post about my collection of Russian Nesting dolls/ Matryoshka dolls. I really like them and have gathered a number of them over the years, so I had a lot of reference to work from for this project. I've used fabric paints with much success in the past so I messed around a bit and came up with these. 

Its easier than it looks! 

This is what I used: 

1 small paintbrush

primary set of fabric paint (blue, yellow, red, black)

plain onsies

sticker paper (I used Avery Labels)

scissors

scrap cardboard (like from a cereal box)

These are the steps I took: 

1. Draw the basic Nesting doll shape, or you can print out this jpg. image out on the sticker paper. The doll is about 6x4 inches on a 0-3 month sized onsie.  

2. Cut out the doll's body shape. 

3. Remove the paper off the back of the sticker and place the sticker where you want the doll to go on the onsie. 

4. Stuff some scrap cardboard into the shirt before you start to paint, or the paint might go through to the backside of the shirt. You might want to use a couple clips to clip the fabric onto the carboard so it doesn't move around. I didn't since I've got a pretty steady painting hand. 

5. Paint around the outside of the stencil onto the shirt. Work with small amounts of paint in dashes around the doll's shape. If you feel your line getting wiggly, just pull the brush towards the centre of the stencil then start again. It doesn't need to be perfect. In fact, I highly suggest not to get too intense about keeping things tight, loosen up, it will look great in the end after all the details are added. Its also best to do two coats rather than one thick one. 

6. Cut out the head scarf shape (the oval for the face and the line below it). I worked from the same sticker paper. I just folded the paper non sticky side to non sticky side symmetrically and in half, then cut out the headscarf shape. 

7. Apply the headscarf shape sticker where you want it to be. 

8. Paint the oval for the face and line under it. 

9. Wait about half an hour until these lines are nice and dry. 

10. Embellish and be creative filling in the rest of the features of the doll. If you need inspiration there are lots of pictures online of nesting dolls. I used mine as reference for painting the eyes, and flowers on their tummies. For finer details like lips, eyes and outlines of flowers, I used the paint directly from the tube of fabric paint. You could also just use a tiny paintbrush! 

Let me know if you have any questions. 

Enjoy!

Becoming a Mom of Two

Jesse and I had a dream. Our dream came true when Elise was born. We talked about having a little girl on day and naming her Elise even back while we were still dating.

So far, she has been a little dream baby too. She is easy to take care of, she nurses well and sleeps well as long as she is super close to me. Sometimes this closeness isn't easily achieved when #1 is running around and has been potty training. He is a very well behaved two year old, in my humble opinion, but still needs to be chased down and taken by the hand most days.

Last week was my first week alone at home with the two of them and it went better than I thought. I was anticipating both of them screaming at me, at the same time all day until Dad came home. I did have a few weak moments (read: moments when I needed to walk away take a deep breaths) but we are really getting into the groove now that I've learned to let things slide. Huh? Like what?

I was majorly stressed out about how tidy things were at home. I'm not a neat freak, but I like everything to be in its place... Or is that the definition of a neat freak? Anyway, I was neglecting more important things like creatively engaging our toddler and resting for constantly tidying... And that's what it means to have a toddler in your home: constantly tidying. I had a really great chat with my mom about it. I admitted to her that ironically it was her voice that I heard in my head saying "a place for everything and everything in its place", so I was a bit surprised but even more affirmed when she said I need to let it go. In her experience of having four children in seven years, she too used to stress and over exert herself when it came to tidying. She said, "You're not going to regret not having a cleaner home, but you will regret not enjoying your children".

It really hit me... It is more important to play with my kids than to clean up after them. I realize the list is never ending and if I do the list I will be too late. They grow up so fast.