Free Craft Friday -- Tea Dyed Onsie or Shirt

*I heard about tea dying through a Pinterest pin and loved the idea and decided a little interchangeable flower would be the perfect finishing touch*

Materials:

-new pre-washed onsie or shirt (used onsies or shirts will cause uneven dying; I tried this first and had darker stain around drool prone spots)

-Black Tea (I also tried Koolaid and Green Tea...Black seemed to work best)

-Lace or embellishments

-needle and thread or sewing machine

-bowl and boiling hot water

Step 1 : Boil water and place tea bags into water.  I used about 4 cups of water and 4 tea bags.  Let the tea soak and stir it to mix evenly.

Step 2 :  Soak your onsie in the tea-water.  I left my tea bags in.  It may work better for even color to take them out.

Step 3 :  Wring out minimally and air dry onsie.  Once it is air dried then wash and dry it in the laundry.

Step 4:  Lay out lace embellishment over the shirt.  Cut extra length on both sides.  For some reason my lace ran shorter as I sewed it on (I'm sure a pro sewer could tell you why)

Step 5:  Pin the lace loosely down on the garment to keep it in place.  Sew the lace down.  I used the thicker trim of my lace to hide the thread and only sewed the top edge.

*hopefully you should have a little excess lace on both edges of the garment like this*

Step 6:  Sew the hanging lace down into the seam of the onsie.  Make sure you don't catch under-layers of the onsie when doing this.

Step 7:  Trim off the excess lace.  Repeat steps 4 - 7 to add layers of lace if desired.

Step 8 (optional):  Sew on a loop to attach embellishments to.  I used an alligator hair clip that I use with flower headbands to gauge the width of the thread loop.  I then sewed over it 5 or 6 times to make a secure loop to attach embellishments to.  Tie this off on the inside of the garment.

 *finished shirt with lace and loop.  The thread loop somewhat blends in also so you don't have to attach anything if you chose*