Cutie Patootie Boots

I have the girls' outfits for Christmas all picked out, but I really didn't have any fun shoes or slippers or anything that really went with the rest of the outfits.  Since they are baby feet, I didn't want to spend a lot of money on something they may only be able to wear for a few months at the most.

I have seen several tutorials out there recently for making your own baby boots. There are some really cute ones on one of my favorite blogs Kojo Designs.  These ladies are amazing!!  If I can one day aspire to have half their talent, it would make me a happy girl for a long time!  :)

I was going to try out their tutorial, but I don't really have any shoes to sacrifice - much less TWO pairs of shoes to sacrifice - that really fit the girls and would work for that application.  But they did inspire me to find some other options.  That's when I stumbled across this pattern from ithinksew.com.  I love it!  Just what I was looking for with things I already had on hand!

So of course I had to make a pair for both of the girls.  I think they turned out alright!

The pattern is not only a really decent price, but it was easy to follow and comes with several different sizes. I also like that they offer adult size shoe patterns.  There are so many to choose from that I am sure I will be busting out some more shoes for the girls.

I did make a couple of adjustments to the pattern for these. They are really pretty nifty in that they just velcro close along the side.  The buttons are just for decoration.  But I found that while the flap closed just fine along the side with the velcro, it left an opening at the top of the foot.  It is probably just how I sewed them.  So I just tacked the flap to the top of the foot right in the middle.  That way the flap will stay where it should over the foot when it is closed, but I can still open them enough to get the girls' feet in there.

The other thing I did was used the smallest size - 0-3 months - for both girls.  Maddie's feet are the same size as our other little angel's feet even though they are 4 1/2 months apart.  I have found it rather frustrating in shopping for baby shoes of any kind that they tend to run very big if you go off of their age to size.  The 0-3 month size fits both girls just fine.  They may not have much room to grow, but in all honesty, these probably won't be worn after this winter anyways.

I also just used an old sweater turtleneck I had that was in the donation pile to make the outside of the boots. I used some fleece I had on hand to make the inside lining.  I didn't use any interfacing as it suggested as they hold up pretty well on their own.

So we shall test these bad boys out soon enough.  If nothing else, they will certainly keep those tootsies warm!