Baby booties rock my world

Did you have a nice Easter? We did. We fit in egg and basket hunting, a great church service, a big tasty Easter dinner, some hockey playoff watching, and even an hour of outdoor mini-basketball playing. 

And did my guys look adorable or what?!

They wore their Easter ties, and Jack wore a pair of matching baby shoes, which I spent my Saturday afternoon making!

So satisfying. I want to eat the baby shoes. Nom nom nom.

I Googled and found this tutorial from Michael Miller Fabrics. It includes a printable pattern and step-by-step instructions with photos -- all for free.

The tutorial says these shoes will fit babies 0-6 months. I found my finished product to be way too big for my nearly 3-month-old. But the nice thing about this is that it is easy to size down. Just flip inside out and sew all the way around the shoe a half-inch or so in from your seam. Turn it back right-side out to see if you're happy with the new size, then flip it back over to snip your excess fabric. You can also tweak by shortening the length of elastic, which I also did. A few adjustments and they were good -- not so snug that he will outgrow them in a day or two, but not so large that they fall right off.

 

For the bottom, I used two layers of 100% wool felt. The tutorial calls for a material called "bonded fleece." The ladies at Jo-Ann's were a little unsure about that. They did point me to this fabric that has the raised dots on the bottom, a grip-y fabric that would be good for early walkers. 

See? I bought a quarter yard of each, but went with the felt because I liked the look of the dark gray. And let's face it, this guy won't be walking anytime soon.

The first shoe took me quite a long time. I had my thread break twice because it got stuck in my machine. I also cut the hole for the elastic in the top of the shoe the first time around. And a few times, I didn't line things up well and had to get the trusty seam ripper out. Also, my seam allowances weren't big enough on first attempt, and when I flipped things right-side out, there were holes.

Hey, just keeping it real here! I'm so not perfect. Just a beginner here. You screw up, you learn, you move on. The second shoe went much faster. Piece of cake. That's what I love about sewing. The process can be so frustrating when things aren't going well. But if you stick with it and slow down and breath and try again... you get rewarded.

Didn't he look sweet?

And the big brother didn't look bad himself. Finished the bow tie strap on Saturday, too. Didn't use the hardware the tutorial calls for. Just made a strap, slipped it through the ring of fabric holding the tie together and added snaps on the ends. Voila!

 
And I get to cross one item off my Sewing Bucket List! Many, many more to go. :)