Baby Shoes

In the beginning of 2009 I made a couple of pairs of baby shoes, just for fun. I made the pattern myself, and the shoes were made from scrap pieces of wool, with a linen or cotton lining. Now, it seems I’ll finally be able to put them to use.

The green pair is made from wool felt, with a flowery cotton fabric as lining, sewn together with embroidery floss, and with ties braided from the same floss. Though lined with flowery fabric, they can work for both a boy and a girl – the flowers won’t show when the shoes are worn anyway, as Tobias said.

The purple pair are made from a thinner wool fabric, lined with lilac lightweight linen, and embroidered with embroidery floss, organza ribbon and glass beads. They, too are sewn together with embroidery floss, have braided ties from the same floss, but are decorated with a bead at each end. Not baby-proof, but the shoes are so tiny, that a baby is not likely to have found her feet yet when they are worn.

These would not work for a boy, at least not in our day and age.

Since we don’t know (and don’t want to find out until it’s born) if our baby will be a boy or a girl, last week I decided to make a pair that would suit a boy. This pair is made from medium weight greyish brown wool, lined with plaid cotton shirting; again, they are sewn together with, and have braided ties from embroidery floss. They also have simple embroidery from that same floss. They could work just fine on a girl as well.

I really like these little shoes, and will very likely make more, in different sizes. I think the next pairs I make will have every piece edged with a bias strip of the lining fabric, or a matching one, before being sewn together. That could look nice.