A year ago today was my baby shower.I wanted it to be special, meaningful and to have some sort of activity that didn’t involve the usual baby shower games. So, what did we do? We had a onesie decorating party.

I got the idea from this blog, and my mom (who threw the baby shower) used a bunch of the ideas the blog mentioned, like the sticky fabric and stencils.  She bought paint markers, fabric swatches, peel and stick (which she adhered to the back of the fabric before the party), a bunch of cheap scissors from the dollar store, a bunch of multi-packs of inexpensive onesies, two types of letter/number stencils, and she made some stencils of her own.  She also wrote out the following directions:

• Choose a piece of fabric with peel & stick
• Draw a design or use a template design on back
• Cut out the design.
• Peel the paper from the back of the design.
• Press the design on the front of the onesie.
• When using paint markers, place a piece of cardboard inside the onesie to keep the marker from bleeding through.

After the party, my mom heat set the onesies by ironing them on the back and putting them in the drier on high for 30 minutes.

We have a bunch of creative friends, but I was still surprised how seriously everyone took it.I mean, there was definite thought and thoughtfulness that went into decorating the onesies.

What I loved the most was that the onesies reflected the people who decorated them.For example a composer created one that had music notes on it, an actor created one that said “movie” and a star shape for “movie star,” and a friend from Texas created one that said “I love Texas.”

Me, a year ago, at my baby shower with the onesie I decorated.

 

We made sure that we took a picture of everyone with the onesie they decorated, and then we pinned them up with clothespins to display them all.  After everyone was done decorating, everyone voted for their favorite onesie, and we declared a winner for a gift card (probably Starbucks or Amazon; I don’t remember).  So, it was a real contest with a winner, but my baby was definitely the winner with so many unique and really cool onesies. 

My newborn baby boy in a onesies that was decorated at the baby shower.

We had a variety of sizes of onesies from newborn all the way up to 12 months so my baby would have time to wear them all.Now that he’s in the 12 month onesies, I’m a little sad to know there aren’t any more for him to wear.It was fun pulling out the next size onesies and remembering back to which friend decorated each one.

My baby boy in a Valentine’s Day appropriate onesie that was decorated at the baby shower.

So, yes, our friends (men and women) enjoyed decorating onesies at our co-ed baby shower, and yes, they did an amazing job decorating them.Also, yes, my son actually wore every single onesie at least once and most multiple times.I would highly recommend this idea for a baby shower activity.

My baby boy in a onesie decorated by a composer friend at the baby shower.

One final note, before your baby shower, make sure you set up a few baby shower registries to give your guests an idea of what you need before your baby arrives. From experience, I know that not every guest will buy exactly what you put on your registry, but it’s still a helpful guide and some guests will shop directly from the registry.

Setting up a registry at an online site like Amazon is also very helpful because guests who live far away (like out of town family members) who aren’t able to attend your baby shower but who still want to send you a gift will be able to do so with free shipping.

Once the baby shower is over and the last gift is opened, chances are you’ll still need a few things for your new baby. With an Amazon baby registry, you can get a discount on everything left on your registry! Babies can be expensive, so that’s a great feature of creating a registry at Amazon and adding everything you think you might need.

Now that’s Pretty Creative Stuff!