Applique Onsies Tips!

Happy Friday everyone! I finally feel like I'm getting back in the swing of things after the holidays. I did want to share one last Christmas gift though-- a baby gift. These were made for an adorable little nephew of mine.

 I know applique onsies have been done all over the place, but these are my first. So much fun to hold and play with tiny onsies now that my kids are out them completely.

These are storebought Carter's onsies (the same my kiddos used to wear, *sniff*). My fav is this camera onsie-- My nephew's dad is a fantastic photographer so I knew it would be appreciated. The camera applique pattern is from lil blue boo. And then I just hand embroidered the 'straps' on so dad and baby can match.

 And then I did some initials...

 And then I wanted to do a name, and was too chicken to actually applique each letter by machine. For this onsie, I sewed each letter on by hand to a separate piece of fabric, and then machine sewed that to the onsie.

And then, I finally got over myself. and  tried my hand at applique all the letters by machine. I know my stitching isn't perfect, but there's a lot of love in there :).

No tutorial, but I do have a few tips:

• you can find tons of free applique templates, and also create your own using a word processing program. 
• The best applique tutorial I found were from Sew Like My Mom. Scroll down to the bottom for her index of applique tutorials. She goes through everything from making the pattern to how to sew around curves. 
• Use a ballpoint needle! I had a ton of skipped stitches even with a universal needle. 
• I used Pellon's xtreme stretch fusible to back each of the appliques so the applique wasn't scratchy against baby's skin. I love that the fused area feels just as pliable as the rest of the knit tee. 
• Don't have a lot of cute scraps? You can always purchase a scrap bag in a girl or boy colorway to get a bunch of different prints for cheap! 

What about you all? love applique? hate it? any tips for my next attempt?