Make Your Own Baby Shoes
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 10. 3.07
Photo credit: Heather Bailey
You don't have to settle for sweatshop-produced booties fresh off a pollutant-spewing container ship from China—with a bit of stitchery know-how you can have your wee one shod in custom-fitted, handmade slip-ons made from felted sweaters, fabric remnants, and other salvaged bits and bobs.
There's Martha Stewart's how-to, of course, but your options don't end there. Fabric designer Heather Bailey offers instructions on how to make her Bitty Booties (above) on her Web site, gratis. Stardust Shoes has a free pattern you can download (PDF) to make tiny cloth booties out of fabric, interfacing, and some elastic. And the blog On Pins and Needles has another equally lovely version for fabric lovers.
If you're able to get your mitts on some leather scraps, or have the heart to tear apart a used leather purse from a thrift store, you can try your hand at piecing together a sharp-looking pair of leather baby shoes. (Svenska-speakers can check out this leather-shoe tutorial, as well.)
Difficulty level: Moderate, but depends on sewing skills
Here's a greener tip: don't buy baby shoes. Babies don't walk. They need shoes exactly as often as they need gloves and no more often. Treat their feet exactly like their hands, at least until they are walking. I never understood baby shoes.
Thanks for mentioning my pattern. It's available also in English in another post - and the original pattern is in Norwegian - not Sweedish ;)
lorryfach: You can't compere soft soled shoes with regular shoes. When babyes crawl (and even more when they start standing or walking) they profit from something less slippery than socks on their feet. At least in countries with cold temperatures like Norway where bare feet isn't an option.