Lino Printed Baby Grows

Bears..... aaahhhhh! Run for the hills!

Seriously though, I have a real thing for bears at the moment, Polar bears of course being the hands down winner ever since seeing the handsome fella below in Copenhagen, but grizzlies are just as cute as well. I don't know if its becoming a trend, or if its the influence of having my own grizzly little bear on the way, but either way anything bears is win for me at the moment.

So I wanted to have a dabble at making a lino print for printing on some baby grows. I have had a small experiment into lino printing before, and actually have some good supplies (seriously not an expensive hobby unless you want to buy a lot of inks). So I drew up a handsome bear and transferred the drawing onto a lino cutting block. Then, using the lino cutting tools, I carved him out into this fabulous looking block.

Here comes my warning about lino print carving... keep your fingers out the way! Yes I did slip and push the blade full force into my thumb, not so great when you are using blades which were found at a car boot... so be wary of this.

Once you have cut out your print you use printing inks and a roller to cover the image and pop it only your printing surface. After applying a little bit of pressure to the back of the block you can carefully lift it off and you should be left with a lovely relief image. There are a couple of really simple tutorials on youtube for this so I seriously suggest you go check out how easy this is.

I do think I could do with a bit more practice though! I managed to get a bit too much ink on my roller and it has gone into all the grooves of the print. Because I was printing onto jersey the fabric has gone into the grooves and picked up all the paint which was there, giving me the kind of opposite effect to what I was after, but this really doesn't matter, I think this version worked out great and I am really happy with his little smiley grizzly face :)

I hope you liked this little idea into decorating your own baby grows/onesies. If you want to give this a go yourself then don't stop there... you can use block printing on cards, invitations, t-shirts, bags anything so give it a go yourself.

Edit: I have just booked onto a short lino printing class with a friend as well so hopefully I will be able to hone in my skills and make some even better prints, I will let you know what we make on the night! 

DIY Custom Baby Grow Series: Fabric Printing Part 1

I had so much fun today! I love crafty Fridays, look what I have been up to (and I have even tidied up before Mr Fox comes home). I have had a bit of a dodgy ankle the last couple of days so getting to the sewing machine was a bit problematic, especially when you struggle to pivot your ankle. So instead I decided to crack on with one of the nice, sitting with your feet up, baby makes I have had in my little brain. You remember my sneaky peaky post from last week? Well now you know what I was dying don't you. 

This post is actually going to end up being so pic heavy that I am going to break it up into two. You will have to check back on Tuesday for part 2. 

There are so many amazingly cute baby grows on the market that any new parent, relative, friend, general acquaintance etc must find it hard not to purchase every cute little outfit they see for a newborn. The problem is they don't come cheaply. So when you consider you have no idea how big baby is going to be and you don't know what you are going to get gifted its very difficult to get yourselves the basics for when baby arrives. They say that you need to take to the hospital at least 5 baby vests and sleepsuits but again, when you might buy something they only wear for 3 weeks how can you justify spending a lit of money. 

That's where plain multipack baby grows come in handy. They are cheap, they wash well, you can pick them up from the supermarket and they are kind to the purse strings. They are however incredibly dull and whats the point of having a baby if you can't make it look cute?

So when I considered that I could buy 3 cute baby sleepsuits for £16, or I could buy 3 plain ones for £6, a packet of fabric dye for £2.50 and then DIY them cute it was a no brainer really. I also already had some fabric paint in the house so there was very little effort required. Craft, entertainment and something handmade at the end of it all to make my little boy look cute as anything.

The first baby grow I did was plain white with printed stars in various colours of fabric dye.

How to do it:
Large Star: This is a cookie cutter which I just dipped into the dye which was on a plate and stamped it on.
Medium Star: This is cut out of a standard sized rubber (just the normal school type) using a craft knife. It is then printed on the baby grow like you would a potato print
Small Star: This one I find quiet ingenious, the star shape is cut out of a rubber on the end of a pencil, so you can use the pencil to hold. Again I used a craft knife to cut the shape away and just stamped away. They are so dainty I love them.

I love how this came out, I think its my favourite one. It works much better in a mix of colours, though you wouldn't need to, you could use just one. Its just randomly printed, there is no pattern to it. Its was so simple and it worked so well. You could make so many of these really quick and easily.

The second version is a dotty print on a hand dyed baby grow.

How to do it:
Dye your baby grow: To do this you will need some Dylon fabric dye, any type will do but if you are only dying a small number of baby grows its much cheaper to buy the small packet rather than the machine version.
Stamp your baby grow in as many coloured fabric paints as you like: This is done very very simply with the rubber on the end of a pencil. There is no special technique, and no special equipment (apart from the fabric dye) it really is that simple.

In hindsight the red was maybe not the best choice, hence my adding the green. It does look a bit like a baby with the measles! Oh well, never mind, at least I made this mistake so you don't have to. You could again do this on plain white and there are so many options for colour matching the possibilities are endless.

So there you have it, part 1 of the fabric printing DIY baby grow series. These were so easy, honestly, anyone who buys plain baby grows should give this a go, not only is it incredibly fun but its also a great way to dress your little baby with love, or to give as a gift to someone you know who will be having a baby, something you know no other baby will be wearing.

I would love to see pics if anyone does give this a go, please do share them with me below.

As I mentioned above, Part 2 will come on Tuesday and I will go over how to make the striped baby grow in the first picture.