Felt Booties

After making an incredible amount of felt and having to get through problems including not having a sink big enough to rinse it in (ending in a few flooded rooms, thank god for super absorbant towels) shrinkage, and multiple coloured ink spills... I now have a teeny weeny pair of felt booties...The boots them self are incredibly easy and quick to make but the thickness of my felt has been an issue! I've had to steam, iron and tear it apart to make it maluable enough to work with. After stripping it back somewhat and cutting the shapes out using a pattern, I just went mad with the sewing machine to add a little bit of surface pattern, taking no time over this at all, but it ensures that this maqquette sample fits in with my sub theme of 'pattern' rather than just being a plain maqquette, and for the sake of five minutes, why not! 

So here are my sample boots, the pink sploges are a bit of a happy accident, some ink got spilt in the studio whilst my felt was drying, but I quite like the hint of colour! 

This is the pattern I've used to create the simple shoe!

After machine embroidery and the first stage of pinning.

All pinned and ready to be sewn up...

All sewn up, using button stitch around the sole, I feel this would be more effective if the felt wasn't so thick, but still a lovely stich to use, simple but effective.

On reflection I'm falling more and more in love with my accidental 'pink sploges' 

Things to remember next time you want to make a huge amount of felt...

1.IT WILL NOT SHRINK AS MUCH AS YOU THINK 

2.THE THICKER THE FELT THE HARDER IT IS TO WORK WITH. 

These are just maqquettes but I'm happy with the outcome and would recomend it as a quick and easy project for anyone!