This is a story of how I turned a thrifted sweater into the cutest kids slippers I have ever seen. Well, the cutest I have ever made, at least. Well, actually, they're the only kids slippers I have ever made, but squee! They are so cute. And I will tell you how I made both kinds!
For the boy, and for the girl. |
Help! The sweater ate my baby! |
To do this, I just washed the sweater on hot (my machine only has a hot/cold setting--I intended to take it out after the hot part ended, but I missed it and the entire cycle ended up running). I dried it in the dryer, and still needed to let it dry on the rack for another day. This sucker was DENSE.
After it finally dried out, I cut along the seams to make flat pieces.
Hindsight--I wish I would have cut it apart before felting it, because the sleeves had very permanent creases in them. |
This step is optional, but I do think (in person, if not in photos) that it makes the felted wool look a little cleaner, and helps the pattern to reappear a bit more.
Then I had my genius idea.
The boy's feet fit right in the pockets from the front of this cardigan, so I decided to use them as the toes of the slippers.
I traced around his feet as a template for the sole.
Then I stuck the template into the pockets and cut around them, leaving plenty of seam allowance because the fabric is REALLY, REALLY thick.
To make the back of the slipper, I measured around the back of the sole, then cut a piece that was the right length.
I decided to make the strip a little wider right in the middle so it would come up a little higher right at the heel. The pin is marking the middle in the picture below.
I then cut out the second back piece using the first one as a template.
Then I pinned the back pieces to the toe, to hold them in place.
Then I pinned the back piece to the sole all the way around. I decided that come hell or high water, I was going to use my machine to sew these two pieces together, even though they were SO. THICK. Have I mentioned how thick they were? It was a bit of a pain to machine sew, but worth it to me because hand-sewing is my mortal enemy. Pretty much every felted slipper tutorial I saw when I was trying to figure out how I would make these tells you to hand sew. Well, I am here to tell you that you CAN jam those two thick layers of wool into your machine, and it will work! And because the felt was so thick, I didn't add any extra padding or layers to the sole, I just used it as-is.
The back piece of the top slipper has been sewn around the sole, but not attached to the toe yet. The bottom slipper has only been pinned. |
And here they are, on the boy's feet! They seem to fit, they stay on, all is well with the world.
I was going to crop this one to show you the slippers, but had to leave little sister's foot in there--she does NOT want to be left out! |
Another pair of chilly toes |
I made a template of the girl's feet too, then used it to cut out these soles. I left lots of seam allowance and narrowed the sole at the heel a bit.
Again, precision is not my strong suit. |
The uppers |
I lined up the back edges of the upper and held them right next to eachother and sewed them together using a wide zig-zag stitch on my machine. As I was only sewing one layer of fabric, this was no problem at all.
back view (also, upside down. Not sure why I photographed it that way.) |
The upper, once you have sewn the back seam. |
Next, I pinned the upper to the sole, stretching the upper a bit at the back so it fit all the way around.
Pinned all the way around. |
I love these. I think they are SO CUTE. And they totally stay on, and they are warm and snuggly, and I want some. Too bad there's not enough of the sweater left for me. Isn't that always the way?
You could doll these up with some sort of decorative blanket stitch around the sole and the opening, but I try to avoid hand-sewing at all costs, so for me they are just fine the way they are.
Show me your shoe! |
They are...a little less slippery. |
Awww, so cute. I have never had luck with the hot glue. It seems to dry so hard when I do it. I also do not have hot glue skills enough to make such adorable designs. Maybe your thinner glueing will work better than my big ol globs! (I have only added it to cheap socks so when she is in her cart running around the house she can get some traction!) I have some old sweaters around here I might try this with!
ReplyDeleteI'm with you--the glue doesn't seem quite tacky enough to work. I will probably try adding the puff paint to see if that helps!
ReplyDelete