Ombre Onesie

Martha Stewart says Ombre is,

"ombre means "shaded." In the decorative arts vocabulary, it fittingly refers to a historic method of dyeing fabric that renders subtle gradations of color from light to dark."

I LOVE this look but Martha's directions seem like a big fat pain in the butt. I wanted to try out using fabric paint and a squirt bottle with varying amounts of water to acheive the same look on a white onesie. I came out pretty good, certainly not as perfect as Martha's (although whatever is?) but for a less than an hour project I think it works for me. (:

Here's what you'll need: article of clothing, fabric paint (local craft/fabric store), small squirt bottle (You can get these in the travel section of a target or cvs type store)

Side Note: I suggest practicing this first on something you don't care too much about. I did this tshirt and although I LOVE the teal you can see where I neglected the armpits. They looked ok when wet but once it dried I could see they didn't get enough love. Eh, live & learn.

Start off by covering your work surface with something, I used plastic wrap and covered it WELL. The spray will get all over the place.

Now for the paint. Start with what you want to be the darkest area, for me that was the bottom of the onesie. In the squirt bottle I added 3 squirts of pink & one of blue to make the purple shade along with around 1" of water.

Shake well and then start squirting the bottom, get it good. If you run out of mix add a little more water. There's probably enough paint in there still that if you just add an inch it'll still work. Don't forget the back, sides, bottom (for a onesie) & any creases.

Next we'll skip to the lightest shade. Add water (no more paint!) to the top of the bottle & shake well.

Saturate the top of the fabric the same way you did the bottom. (Through trial & error I found it easiest to do the top after the bottom and then go back & fill in the middle.) Be sure to get the sleeves too if you have them.

For the middle we'll add more paint like you did the 1st time but we'll add more water than we did before. I filled my bottle a little over 1/2 way full. Saturate the entire middle part overlapping a little with the light top and dark bottom. Since it's watered down you'll see it's easy to blend in with the paint already on your fabric.

Also get the bottom half of the sleeves. I found it easiest to hold the sleeve in the air with one hand while squirting with the other to make sure I got everywhere.

Finally I took the bottle and filled it to the top with water again. Notice I had a lot of "oopsies" where the paint on my work surface got on my onesie. (I should've wiped my desk between each layer of painting, oh well.) You can make these spots blend in a little better by squirting them with the watered down mixture. Also the sooner you can blend them with water the better they'll blend in.

Continue blending in any spots you don't like and wah-lah! You're done! For Tulip brand paints just turn them inside out and machine wash. (To be safe I wash mine without any other laundry)

Tomorrow I'll show you how to make the "10-minute TuTu" & tulle hairbow that are in the picture!

Happy Monday, SOOOO glad to be back HOOOOOooooooommmme!!!