Wrap Over Felt Shoe

Using varicolour wool gives an interesting look

 I have been sewing some felt baby shoes. 

I love this thick felt, although 3mm thick was just about on the limit of what my sewing machine can handle.

I made the first pair as part of the process of designing my wrap over baby shoe knitting pattern. This is not the way I normally work when knitting. Usually I have an idea in my head, and just sort of go for it, adapting and altering as I go along. But for the wrap around on the knitted shoes to work, I knew the shape had to be precise. The best way to get this right was to make a pair, first out of paper and then out of felt.

This green pair was my first go, and they are completely stitched by hand. The button is just sewn on through all the felt layers without a buttonhole, as I was just checking the shape. But they turned out so cute, I thought I would have a go at making a few more. 

To make these a bit more hardwearing and practical I have machine sewn the seam, and just oversewn around the edges by hand with wool. The buttons are functional, and really useful when putting them on a baby's feet. On some I have handsewn around the buttonholes, though explain on the pattern how you could machine sew them if you have this available on your sewing machine.
 
The pattern for these shoes is available to download on Etsy. It comes in two sizes - 0-3 months and 3-6 months. It is very good value (that is to say cheap). The little shoes are very easy to make, and I think the wrap around makes them quite different to other felt shoes I have seen. It would be really fun to customise them with a bit of embroidery, but for the photos I wanted the shape of the wrap around to stand out. I suggest you use the best quality felt you can find. 

If you don't have a baby to make some for, I think with a ribbon attached they could make a really nice Christmas decoration, perhaps with some sweets popped inside. I know I shouldn't even be talking about Christmas at this time of year, but I may have a go at giving some of them the Christmas makeover.

I am sure than there must be software that is useful for creating sewing patterns (I would really welcome any advice with this), but the only way that I know is to very carefully draw the pattern pieces by hand, and then scan them on my printer. So this pattern has the same rustic charm as these little shoes. 

As you can see, I just can't stop making them.

If buttonholes are really not your thing you could us a little velcro.

Embroidery Pincushions

I have been saying for a few weeks that I was going to do a post on some hand embroidered pincushions I have been making.

This was my first attempt. I really like plants like cow parsley, or any plants that have a nice round seed head. I cut up a very old, partially felted, jumper to embroider on, but have decided shop bought felt may work out better. Although it doesn't really show in the photo it was a bit lumpy. The French knots is one of my favourite stitches, and have been thinking of other flowers that I could sew with knots.  

This is my version on shop bought felt. I wanted the cushions to have depth, but sewing a heart shape like this was much harder than I imagined.

Here are the bluebells that I showed before ...

And the final one is a dandelion clock. It has some clear beads sewn on too.

They have a few imperfections, so they are not heading for Etsy. I will keep them for a craft fair, as I feel more comfortable selling them in person.

My plan for the coming week is to get to grips with machine embroidery. My only previous attempt of a Butterfly I felt was too constrained. I enclosed everything with neat zigzags. I want to be able to paint with the thread, and it have that lovely free look. 

There are some blogs featuring machine embroidery that I really admire: one of the best is Sweet Birdy Love. The embroidery are works of art. I look at the beautiful work and think I'd just love to be able to make something half as nice. So I have a reel of machine embroidery thread, and am going to lower those feed dogs and just go for it.

Sorry about not commenting last week on Handmade Monday. We only got internet by sitting in one particular place in the garden in France.

The Elves and the Shoemaker

There is something that I really like about little shoes, and I think it is because of the story of the Elves and the Shoemaker. It is the idea of a lovely new piece of leather (in my case felt) being left out at night, and in the morning there being a brand new pair of shoes. Although in this version I am the Shoemaker, and the shoes are elf-sized. 

These didn't do very well at any of my fairs, so will probably end up on my own Christmas tree. But the good thing is that means I also get the chocolates inside!

A Rainbow of Owls

Did you know that a group of owls is called a parliament? That sounds very serious, so I would prefer to call mine a rainbow of owls.  

This is a new venture, as I decided to have a go at a sewing pattern. I did intend my blog to be a mixture of everything, but I have rather got hung up on the knitting.  I decided to start with something fairly simple, but even for my little owl the process of making the pattern, has been a learning curve. Have I mentioned that I am a little bit computer phobic? One of the ideas of having a blog was to face my computer fears. So the process of drawing and scanning the pattern pieces, and then making logical written instructions, with photographs to help, has been difficult. 

But I love my little group of owls. I'm not sure if they are meant to be or toy or an ornament.  Definitely not a toy for anyone very young, because of the button eyes, but I think a lot of bigger kids might like a row of colourful owls on their windowsill. Or it could just be a little pincushion.

You can find the pattern in my Etsy Shop.