Baby Onesies with Fabric Flower Accent

I recently made these little onesies for our friends' infant daughter, Noel, who we met for the first time this past weekend on a getaway with our 8 friends and the 6 kiddos now among us.  I suddenly realized I'd never sent a gift when she was born back in November, and we were going to be meeting her for the first time, so I set out to add some embellishment to the plain shirts.  I started with a different plan but it just wasn't working once I got into it, and it was 10 p.m...so I went to bed and figured I'd either come up with another idea in the morning or run out and buy something.  And, I swear, I must have had a dream about sewing a little flower corsage to the shirts, because I woke with it on the brain.

I already had the two printed fabrics from my original idea, so I was able to get experimenting right away.  I cut wavy circle "petals" out of the navy and white fabric in small, medium, and large sizes.  You can make them as big or small as you want the flowers to be.  I made them on the larger side, and when little Noel modeled one of the shirts on Saturday, she was having a grand time sucking away on the flower.  So based on that little test run, I'd say go for bigger if you want to provide the wearer with a built-in toy and smaller if you'd rather not give her another reason to chew on her clothes.

Starting with the smallest petal, pinch it up into something of a cone shape.  There's no science here, just play with it until it looks a bit like a flower.  Then sew a few stitches through the bottom pinched part to hold the shape.

Thread the needle through the next largest petal with the print side facing up and repeat the process of pinching and playing with the fabric until you like the look of it, then put a few more stitches through the bottom.  Keep repeating until you have used all of the petals you cut.

Place the flower where you would like it on the onesie - I liked the top right.

Stitch the flower onto the onesie.  I found going through some of the petals around the edges held the flower to the shirt nice and flat.  It won't look pretty from the inside...but no one looking at it from the front will ever know.

For the cherries fabric I tried plain circular shapes and then followed the same process outlined above.

I imagine the edges of the fabric will fray a bit when washed but I think this should work quite well and make the fabric petals look even more authentic.

I also gave a little pair of shorts with the onesies, but really they can be worn all by themselves.  And, really, who doesn't love exposed baby thighs in summertime??