A Little Something for the Father-to-Be

Most of you went to colleges with big athletics programs, right? Both of mine, Georgia Tech and Stanford, were NCAA Division I schools so there was always some kind of athletic event going on. You know what else goes along with big athletics programs? Merchandise. Flags, license plate frames, keychains, glassware, and the big one — apparel! Shirts, sweatshirts, hats, jackets, vests, socks. You name it, and you can probably buy it with your school logo or mascot on it. I don’t have any GT baby gear yet, but I know that when I’m ready to put our daughter in a Yellow Jacket onesie or kid’s tee or even a cheerleader outfit, I will have a plethora of choices.

But Jose went to MIT. It’s a fantastic school, as most people know. But…no major athletic program. And that means very, VERY slim pickings when it comes to MIT-branded apparel.

Even though our baby isn’t due until August, for Father’s Day I thought it would be fun to surprise Jose with some kind of MIT-themed baby item, but there’s not much to be found. There are a couple sites that sell Ivy League apparel and they include MIT in that category, and then there’s The Coop, MIT’s bookstore. But I’m a little gun shy, because Jose has ordered from The Coop before only to end up disappointed with the quality. Take, for example, the nice fleece jacket he ordered a year or two ago. I’ve never seen an otherwise normal fleece jacket cut that strangely. It didn’t fit at ALL, and we had to send it back.

Anyway. The Coop had a couple baby options, but nothing really jumped out at me. (I did, and still do, love this “Future Evil Genius” onesie featuring an evil-looking beaver, the MIT mascot. I have to order that at some point. But for now I wanted something that actually said MIT.) So I decided to attempt making something myself, and came up with the idea of appliqueing the MIT logo onto a onesie.

Here’s how it turned out:

It ain’t perfect, but it’s not too bad — and most importantly, Jose loved it!

So how did I do it? Well, let’s just say that it’s a good thing those plain white onesies come in packs of five, because as with many of my projects lately, it took several tries — and several onesies — to get it right.

I downloaded the MIT logo, which they conveniently make available on their website — although I’m not sure they quite intended it for this type of use, I decided it would be fine (please don’t sue me, MIT!) — and printed it out on a piece of paper to make sure it was the right size. Then I traced it onto some double-sided heat-n-bond iron-on adhesive and applied that to my maroon fabric according to the directions on the package. After that I cut out each piece and applied them to the onesie. Things were going great!

But then came the sewing…

Failed attempts

Like I said earlier, it’s a good thing the onesies came in a pack of five because my first and second attempts were utter failures. You can see the first on the left. It turned into all sorts of a mess! The fabric didn’t feed through my sewing machine well at all, and my efforts to help it along just made it get all stretched out. I quickly realized that this was not going to work, and took to the internets to find the solution — stabilizer.

This stuff is awesome! (And I should have remembered it from years ago when I made a t-shirt quilt.) It irons onto the back of whatever you’re sewing to keep stretchy knits from stretching, and then you can tear it away once the sewing is complete.

The finished back on my 3rd (and successful) attempt, with the stabilizer still in place

Not perfect, but not bad!

With the help of the stabilizer, my 3rd attempt finally resulted in something I was happy with! And now our little girl can show off her daddy’s alma mater with pride — at least until she outgrows this 0-3 month onesie and I have to make another.