making children’s shoes – Simple Shoemaking

One more “First Walker” shoes for children post

Sharon Raymond — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 21:55:36 +0000

Here’s a photo of a couple of pairs of “First Walker” shoes that my daughter made for members of her “birth board”. (In case you don’t know about this phenomenon, it’s a way for pregnant women to communicate on the WEB with others around the country who are expecting babies around the same time).

Baby shoes made from T-shirts!

Sharon Raymond — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 15:35:04 +0000

There was a recent request on a forum I’m on for prom dresses for girls who need them, and my mind went to the “T-shirt wedding dress” I had seen in a book I frequently consult, “Generation T – 108 ways to transform a T-shirt”. Making things from T-shirts is my second most-favorite thing to do. When working with T-shirts I like to incorporate stitching techniques that I learned from the books of www.alabamachanin.com.

Visiting the facebook page of the author, Megan Nicolay, www.generation-t.com, inspired me to make a T-shirt baby shoe that I could post on her site. I had not made any “T-shirt baby shoes”, so, using the tutorial for the “First Walker” baby shoes that was recently posted on my blog, I tackled this assignment and was pleased with the results, seen here.

Using Natalie Chanin’s stitching technique, the threads are knotted on the outside, and the running stitch is used by the miles.

I used three layers of T-shirts, from scraps left over from a dress I am making for my 4-month-old granddaughter Millie. Now she’ll be “matchy-matchy”! If I had some double-sided sticky interfacing I would have used it to give the shoe a little more “body”.

Here’s my creation! As usual with shoemakers, now I have to make another one. (And yes, those are spring bulbs breaking through the earth under the shoe – yay!)

The smallest shoes I have ever made

Sharon Raymond — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 21:32:31 +0000

Now that I have a grandchild, I will be learning a lot more about what size of shoe a child wears at a certain age, and what fits and what doesn’t – here’s Millie in the smallest-size shoe from How to Make Simple Shoes for Children with your own two hands!, which is for a 3 1/2″ foot. She’s four months old. Of course she’s not walking, so the shoes are not functional, although they may be helping to keep her feet warm. I used the pattern from said book, which is similar to the First Walkers pattern featured in my most recent tutorial.

“Scarpits”

Sharon Raymond — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:21:06 +0000

“Scarpits” was the name of the house shoes that my Italian “nona” (grandmother) made for all the family and required everyone to wear when visiting her home. I dedicated Crafting Handmade Shoes to her, and described our relationship in the following Introduction to this book.

ladybugs and leaves – baby shoes

Sharon Raymond — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 21:22:16 +0000

Here are a couple of pairs of shoes that my daughter recently made for friends who have also recently had babies. The pattern is in How to Make Simple Shoes for Children, in the smallest size, which is for a 3 1/2″ long foot. Since these leathers were so soft, she made them with the seams inside the shoe instead of the usual stitch-down process that we usually use. It seems to be easier for those with such pliable feet to get shoes on made in this way. One could put a little pad of wool fleece (I have a box of it cleaned, get in touch if you’re interested) in there also to make sure the inside-seam didn’t rub on feet, or a piece of lambskin.

Felt slippers

Sharon Raymond — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 05:02:22 +0000

http://www.marthastewart.com/864540/stephanies-sewn-felt-slippers – is the url for a great slipper pattern based on a Native American moccasin, published in Martha Stewart’s Living magazine recently. It has a lot of versatility, as shown in the photo.

http://vimeo.com/32458552 – is the url for a video of Stephanie herself showing you how to make these slippers; I think my contribution will be to make a set of women’s patterns for these slippers, and kids as well.

And finally for this post: http://escapefrombk.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/sewn-felt-slippers/ for yet another version. I’ll work on the pattern and hopefully post some templates tomorrow.

And, can you believe it – another version at: http://zipperteeth.blogspot.com/2012/03/sewn-felt-slippers.html

“Shoes are boring; wear sneakers”

Sharon Raymond — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 03:29:07 +0000

Converse “design it yourself” ads are all over web pages I go to: I say, “shoes somebody else makes are boring, make your own!” Why be stuck with choosing colors and maybe the location of a rivet or two? Start with my book, How to make the simplest sandals for everyone with your own two hands! And out of recycled materials, no less!

I was talking with a fellow recently who wants to make high end shoes for men. As I reflected on our conversation, the idea came to me that a brilliant business move might be to make the “fisher(man)” sandal, and make the heel section and toe-strap out of a neutral, less-expensive leather, then make the cross-straps out of more interesting colors and textures of leathers; perhaps the customer could select the colors and types of leather that he wants for the cross-straps from strips on display. His customized sandals could be ready in hours.

The fisher sandal that is featured in “simplest sandals” has an elastic instead of a leather strap; great for women’s and children’s sandals, but not sufficiently “upscale” for the man’s sandal I am imagining. I’ll be working on making patterns for the fitted heel section and strap so it can be available for those who are intrigued by this concept. I did create a children’s pattern such as this one several years ago for an organization in Haiti; you can see the sandals in the young Haitian man’s hands, one pair I sent as a sample, the other pair he made himself.