Ideas for a MetaFilter onesie?

June 28, 2009 11:26 PM

What should our five month old baby wear to our local 10th Anniversary Metafilter Meetup in 3 weeks?

So time is running out and what with all the feeding and the playing and the pooping I have not managed to embroider our little girl her own Metafilter onesie yet. Three questions:

1. If I have time to embroider it myself, should I just embroider a big old "Metafilter" on there or am I missing a great opportunity for fun and silliness with some other slogan? Like, "© 1999-2009 MetaFilter Network LLC. All babies are © their original authors." (That's a little wordy and I'm not a great embroiderer, but you get the idea. Husband and I met through Metafilter, so onesie can reflect kiddo's special relationship to the site.)

2. If I can't get my act together and do it myself (probability > 60%), can anyone recommend someone on Etsy or elsewhere who would embroider or otherwise decorate a onesie affordably?

3. Is there a quicker way besides embroidery to make this onesie that won't look like ass? I've embroidered onesies before but they take me more time than I probably have these days. I'm not a great artist but have a little bit of craftiness in me.

Basically I'm looking for a really fun onesie idea and suggestions on how to turn it into a reality. More like "my great slogan idea is ____ and here's a YouTube video showing a cool technique for approximating silkscreening with a Sharpie" than "how about going through a wild goose chase to find exactly the right color onesie in Metafilter blue" etc. Thanks, MetaFilter!

posted by onlyconnect to clothing, beauty, & fashion (15 comments total)

I do like the copyright idea about all children being copyrighted / registered / trademarked by their parents...

Also consider that the questions side of things on AskMeFi for registered users is a darker golf green - maybe some combination of the two colors?
posted by chrisinseoul at 12:06 AM on June 29

Mefite V02
Mefite User # 1,000,000
MeBabe
14493 + 2782 = Mefite V02
posted by b33j at 12:17 AM on June 29 [1 favorite]

At your local Staples, and probably also at Michael's, you can buy specialty plastic 8.5 x 11 sheets that can be inkjet printed upon and then ironed on to fabric. Very easy!
posted by xo at 12:27 AM on June 29

Lots of places will do machine embroidery on clothing pretty cheaply. Look for shops who do work and sport uniforms, especially if what you want is simply text.
I suggest, over your child's bellybutton, the words:

[add to favorites]

...inviting poking, and giggling.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 12:29 AM on June 29 [7 favorites]

I've painted onsies with good quality fabric paint, the kind that sets when you iron it, and it looks great. I've seen one of them after lots of wearing and washing and it still looked great (baby was fairly cute too). The paints I used were Pebeo but your local craft store should have good options.

It will be much much faster than embroidery and you have a wide colour choice. The main downside is probably needing a steady hand to give clean, even looking lines but if you embroider then you're probably doing better than I in that regard anyway.

No help on what to actually put on there but I do like the idea of a plus sign on the belly for favouriting.
posted by shelleycat at 12:56 AM on June 29 [1 favorite]

Maybe a [more inside] grey and yellow logo?
posted by MarvinJ at 3:13 AM on June 29

Running with Fiasco da Gama's idea...

Babyname at birthtime on birthdate [+][!]
or
Pepsi-Blue!
posted by onlyconnect to Babies are fun at birthtime on birthdate [+][!]
posted by b33j at 3:31 AM on June 29

If you go for the fabric paint route, may I suggest using stencils? That way you can get good crisp lines with relative ease.
posted by Jilder at 3:35 AM on June 29

The [more inside] belongs on the seat.

Alternately, something like "Metafilter: mostly perfect but occasionally a shrieking, smelly [something something]."

MeTyke?
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 4:03 AM on June 29

Even better than iron-on inkjet sets are iron-on letters--at Michaels or AC Moore you should be able to find the fuzzy, 70s type of lettering. They stand up to washing much better than the inkjet kind.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 5:29 AM on June 29

Chaps. 4 month old babies stant out in chaps.
posted by dasheekeejones at 6:54 AM on June 29

[This is good]
posted by jimfl at 6:58 AM on June 29

Here's a quick-and-dirty cafepress version. I can monkey around with the colors and/or message, if you like, but I can't do much about the placement of the message or fabric color. Or maybe someone with actual graphical design skills could do something decent.
posted by MrMoonPie at 9:16 AM on June 29

circumcised and declawed for your convenience
(sorry)

You could combine these two tutorials to make an easy silkscreen (contact paper over fabric on a embroidery hoop). Maybe you could even apply the contact paper directly over the fabric and paint it with a sharpie.
posted by clearlydemon at 9:56 AM on June 29

These suggestions and links are fantastic! I did not know about the ink-jet iron-on or fabric paint options, and these are both things that are within my skill set! (And if not, I will use Mr. MoonPie's helpful cafepress link -- thanks so much for setting that up!) Also, the [+ add to favorites] and [more inside] ideas are adorable! This has been a big help and I'm sorry I'm not marking every single answer as best answer here. I really appreciate the ideas!

but jimfl, I think [This is good] is the wrong website! :)

And clearlydemon, kudos to you for the "easy silkscreening" link and even working a sharpie into your comment!
posted by onlyconnect at 10:28 AM on June 29