DIY Thanksgiving Turkey Onesie

Jenson has a Thanksgiving outfit that his Aunt Summer and Uncle Gary sent him, but I couldn’t resist making this turkey onesie because I’ve had it pinned since before we were even ready for kids.  The website I pinned it from is no longer available, so I had to wing it (no pun intended).  He was sleeping when I finished it so I haven’t been able to try it on him, but I wanted to get it posted in case anyone wanted to make one before Thanksgiving.

We’ll probably just take pictures in it because he’s not just going to be hanging out in a short-sleeve onesie in Ohio in November.  It’ll be adorable with the hat that his Aunt Christine made him, though.

She also made a Pilgrim hat for Boof and I’ve been promising to try to get them together (awake) in a picture (hopefully today – also have to get his 7 week pics!). Seriously….look at this…Boof will wear anything for a treat tiny piece of carrot.

We had company on Saturday and Lo had a 12 hour flu, and then we were gone all day Sunday visiting his family, but I took the stuff with me since I knew people would be holding Jenson all day and I would actually have some “free” time.  His grandma helped me figure out how to get the pieces cut out and positioned on the onesie, and I wouldn’t have thought to use buttons for eyes.  If I were making this for an older baby/toddler, I wouldn’t use buttons since they could be a choking hazard.  Since Jenson doesn’t even know how to use his arms yet (or even that he has arms), I don’t have to worry for him.  I just got everything cut out and ready, and did the ironing when I got home.

There are so many ways this onesie could be made.  As a matter of fact, two friends of mine made similar, but different onesies for their babies.  They used white onesies and put whole turkeys on the front.  I went to Hobby Lobby and bought the brown onesie ($4.99), fusible web iron-on sheets ($4.99), and sheets of burgundy, yellow, tan, orange, and white felt (4/$1).  With a coupon for 40% off one item, the project was a little more than $9, though I have leftover felt and the fusible web, so really only about $5 since I only used 1 of 5 sheets of the iron-on stuff.  Since I draw like a 6-year-old, I printed off a turkey template because I couldn’t make the feathers symmetrical when free-handing them.  I cut the template down to size in length and used that to trace onto the fusible web to cut out.  I used milk jug caps to trace the eyeballs, and free-handed the gobbler and nose.

The instructions for the fusible web took two of us to figure out, but basically, I traced the shape of the feathers onto the paper-y side of the sheet, cut them out, peeled off the loose” side of the backing, pressed the sticky side onto the different colors of felt that I used for the feathers, and then cut that shape out of the felt.  Once I decided on placement of the feathers, I peeled the backing off the web that was stuck to the felt and placed the first piece on the onesie where I wanted it.  You can’t really tell that there is backing to peel off, but if you pick at the edge with your fingernail, you’ll be able to pull off the wax paper-like backing and expose the fusible webbing.  I covered the felt on the onesie with a damp pillow case (press cloth) and pressed it with the iron for 10-15 seconds, using the steam setting for cotton.  I pressed each piece twice because I was worried it wouldn’t stick.  I did each feather individually since they overlapped, and when I moved onto the front, I placed all of the face pieces on and pressed them on together.  As I mentioned above, I sewed on buttons for the black part of the eye, but you could also just iron-on black fabric to the white felt…or color it in with a permanent marker if you don’t want to bother.

I kept thinking the project was going to be harder than it was and was putting it off (which is counter-intuitive because if something is going to be hard, it would make more sense to start early.  I don’t think I’ve ever used iron-on stuff and other than struggling to understand the instructions (blame it on baby brain), it was simple.  It was really just a matter of figuring out the shapes I wanted to use, cutting out the pieces, and pressing them on with the iron.  If you plan for this just to be a one-time wear item, you could probably even use hot glue or fabric glue to attach the pieces.  I wanted to try to make it more washable in case I wanted to save it or pass it on to someone else another year.  I wish I would have made Lo a matching shirt.  That would have been funny.  Maybe next year….