Today I’m going to show you how to screen print and make your own personalized onesie! This would be perfect for a baby shower, birthday, new baby gift, or really could be adapted to any size shirt.
But before all that… I’d like you to meet one of the cutest little babies I’ve ever met:
Lucas
Let me tell you, I’ve never been happier photographing a finished project than I was snapping pics of this little guy wearing the onesie I screen printed. He was smiling, blowing bubbles, and kicking away. He’s my friend’s baby and he is quite photogenic, don’t you think?
The pear design I drew freehand in photoshop and loved the simplicity of it. I also created a few other designs that I will share with you and you can download for free to make your own!
This one with all the baby toes kills me. I can’t even.
I decided to try out filling in the pear with fabric paint and I LOVED how it turned out! I simply used a multi-purpose craft paint watered down a lot and painted it right on. Once it was dry, I heat-set the whole thing and washed it. The result is soft (not stiff) and is so much cuter!
The most expensive part of this project was the actual screen printing emulsion and ink. BUT if you have a 40% coupon, it actually is not too bad (around $20 for the emulsion kit and $6 for the ink). And once you have the supplies to do this, you can print again and again for pennies! The screen can be reused over and over and the emulsion is enough to do about 7-10 different screen designs, printing as many multiplies as you want for each design. The ink would last you probably for 50 onesies/shirts if you aren’t wasteful.
To see the FULL tutorial and get the pear printable to make the onesie as pictured, go see my eHow tutorial HERE.
Below are some 4 other design options I created for making different screen printed onesies. To download the free printable versions of each, CLICK HERE.
**The free printable images I created for this screen printing tutorial are to be used for personal use only. They are not to be altered, reproduced, distributed or used in any way for gain.**
The two trickiest ones above are the pineapple and the bear– they have the thinnest lines and gray areas which can be easily over-exposed under the light– making it difficult to remove the photo emulsion. I would try it at 15 minutes under the light instead of the recommended 20 and gently wash them under the water, not using the toothbrush unless absolutely necessary.
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