Reduce, Reuse, Re-FOX

okcmb1-1My little chunker is growing like crazy. You see the fox onesie in the picture above? He wore it twice. Two times. In his whole life. And now what do I do with it? Passing on hand-me-downs and donating is great and all, but this time I thought it would be nice if I could give it a whole new purpose. Not just a new purpose, but a new, LONG, life with the very child who outgrew it much too quickly.

Here’s what I did. I hope it will inspire you to create something quirky and fun for your little one too!

okcmb1-13That’s right. See what I did there? I used all three outfits to create this super cute, silly, little fox. Here’s how I did it.

okcmb1-4 I started by pinning the fox’s head (face down) to another piece of fabric (also faced inward toward the fox)  and then cut them both out together. I cut it out at about .5″ from the actual face. This gave me some room to work with for when I was ready to start sewing. I “freehanded” it and sewed it, loosely following the outline of his face, then I turned it right side out and set it to the side. If you’re reading this and panicking about your sewing abilities, don’t. I feel like I’ve got a decent handle on most artistic mediums. Sewing? Not so much. If I can do it, you can do it.

From there I went on to work on the body. I very loosely cut out his arms and legs using the same “freestyle” method. If you are a perfectionist, you can take a more calculated approach and draw out your patterns before you start cutting. Just like the head, sew the body and turn right side out. I did 2 separate pieces to his body–the arms and the legs. Not going to lie, it was kind of a pain. I think the next time I do it, I’ll make the body all one piece, it’s just easier and I’m all about easy. The only other piece I sewed by machine was the tail. Again, I just winged it. I wanted this to look quirky, primitive and of course, homemade.

I then stuffed my pieces with Poly-fil and closed the openings by hand stitching them. I even went back with embroidery floss and stitched some large “X’s” over the parts I had hand stitched. I like the intentionally messy look of it.

Ribbet collageNext, I attached the head to the body. I tried to sew it discretely, and hid my stitches so they wouldn’t be seen. I also took this time to add a few buttons that were on the clothes originally. (Please, please, please–use buttons at your own risk. I made sure mine were fastened securely, but I still won’t let Locke play with it unsupervised until he is much older.)

Then came the tail. This worked out pretty well for me, because not only is it adorable, it added some much needed support and kept the head from being too floppy.  As a finishing touch I half haphazardly stitched Locke’s name on the tail. I love all things personalized.

There you have it. Not everyone has a fox onesie, but I bet there is something fun to work with in your kid’s closet. And don’t stop with the babies, there are some great designs on big kid clothes that are just begging to be chopped up and re-purposed! And if the idea of making an entire body seems daunting, then just make the head and attach it to a square of minky fabric and you’ve got a lovey for your little lovey.

okcmb1-12I just love the way this little guy turned out (Locke does too) and from the looks of it, he’s going to fit in nicely with our crazy cast of characters.

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Nicah Lowry
Hello! I’m a single mom living in Norman, Oklahoma. First and foremost, I am “Mama” to my sweet little boy (Locke-10 months). I love all things festive and creative, and I’m happiest when I’m making pretty things. These days it’s a little trickier to find time to create. But when the bath has been given, the stories and prayers have been said, and when Baby is all snug in his bed, you can find me at my computer. It’s during this rare and fleeting downtime when I can get my ideas down and into my shop, etsy.com/shop/nicahlowrydesign. You can also follow me on Instagram at nicahlowrydesign where I post my newest work and anything that happens to inspire me or makes me happy.

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