Baby Booties

It’s been a busy week and I’m guilty of burning the candles at both ends. Naughty me!

Saturday was spent shopping for a bridesmaid’s dress with my wonderful friend Becky. Her wedding is in February so it’s full preparation mode now. We had a great day and have more planned.

We also called into Bristol’s Vintage Fair, well it would be rude not to, and a purchase or two-ish was made ;-)

I haven’t made much this week as I was busy, busy, busy but I did manage to make a pair of baby booties. 

Unfortunately they weren't smooth sailing. This was mainly due to not thinking my materials through thoroughly and that led to a major mishap. I bought a lovely, fleecy blanket in Ikea for the fabric. It’s purple on one side, fuchsia on the other and is really soft and snuggly. I thought I would use this to line the boots with the purple side facing out. As the outer fabric is cotton I decided it would be best to bond the fabrics together before sewing. In doing this, the heat from the iron caused the purple and fuchsia sides to separate, something I really should have taken into consideration. This resulted in the fleecy side of the fuchsia being bonded to the outer cotton, leaving a shiny side exposed. Not good! To overcome this I had to separate more of the blanket fabric and had to cut all the pattern pieces out again from just the fuchsia side. I didn’t bond this to the already bonded cotton and fleece, I just pinned it and sewed the sections together whilst completing each boot. Obviously, If I had chosen a single layer fleece or separated them first, I would have saved time and effort.

I have put together a tutorial for the booties if you fancy making a pair yourself. I have done it as if I hadn’t messed up, so let’s just pretend I didn’t, yeah? I designed the pieces using the measurements of an average newborn weighing 7lb 8oz, that is approximately 7.5cm long by 2.5cm wide.

Continue reading for the tutorial!

Baby Booties' Instructions

Materials needed:

Approx. 15x15cm of cotton print

Approx. 15x15cm of fleece material

Approx. 15x15cm of Bondaweb (or similar fusible adhesive) and an iron

Pattern pieces

Embroidery cotton and needle

2 buttons

2 sew-on snap fastenings

1.    Following the manufacturer’s instructions bond the cotton and fleece together using the fusible adhesive and an iron. 

2.    Using the photgraph and measurements below, draw and cut out the pattern pieces and label one side of each piece “A” and the other “B”. They don't have to be exactly the same, try putting them together to make sure it works overall before moving onto your fabric. They include a seam allowance of approxiamtely 0.4cm.

3.     Pin the 3 pattern pieces to the fleece side of the bonded fabrics with side A facing up and cut them out.

4.    Repeat step 3 with side B of the pattern pieces facing up.

This will give you two of each section which are mirror images of each other.

5.    Pin all the darts (the cut out “v”) closed with right sides together on the two front sections, sew the darts closed using a whip stitch.

6.    Using the embroidery cotton, blanket stitch the short edge of both toe sections and the upper edge of the back section including the strap.

7.    Pin the back section to the back of sole section, fleece sides together.

8.    Pin the toe section to the front of the sole, fleece sides together, overlapping the back section at the sides.

9.    Blanket stitch all the sections together around the outside of the sole.

10.    Sew the snap fastenings onto each boot and a small button onto the end of the strap very securely. 

And there you have it, a little pair of baby booties:

 A view of the back and the sole:

I used a girly colour scheme as they're for a baby girl but they'd work just as well for a baby boy. The outer fabric is "Salt Air" by Cosmo Cricket for Moda (www.modafabrics.com) and I just love it.
Please send me a picture if you make a pair! Until next time craft in earnest!