Ruffled Baby Shoes

I was browsing Pinterest today and these baby shoes caught my eye.  They are the cutest little things I've ever seen!  No, I don't have any kids, but I do love babies...and tiny things.  These shoes are from a cute site called Fleeting Thing.  If anyone makes them, I'd love to see a picture!  I might some day if I have a baby shower to visit!

 Aren't they adorable!  Here's the pattern and some more pics.  To find the printable patterns, go here.  They have two links you can click on to download them.

Here's how to make the Mila Baby Shoes with ruffles:

Top of shoe

Cut out 4 pieces of the TOP pattern piece in 2 contrasting fabrics
Pin contrasting TOP pieces together, right sides together.

















Sew around as shown below.

Sole of shoe

Cut out 4 pieces of the SOLE piece in 2 contrasting fabrics.
Layer one fabric piece, one double-sided interfacing piece and one contrasting
fabric piece.
Press with an iron so the pieces will stick together.

Ruffles

To make the ruffles, cut out 2 of each RUFFLE piece out of the main fabric.
Pin together, right sides together along the length of the fabric piece.



After sewing, they should look something like this.



Turn right side out. This may take some patience as the pieces are very thin.



You now have these 4 pieces for each shoe that look like this:



With the biggest stitch (mine is 6) and the highest tension on the sewing machine, stitch
along the length of the ruffle pieces, without backstitching at the beginning or end
(so that you can pull the thread easily and gather).



You should have ruffle pieces that look like this:



Place the big ruffle piece across the top of the shoe, leaving a few millimeters
between the ruffle and the edge as shown below.



Sew in place.



Pin the small ruffle piece on top of the big ruffle piece and against the edge of the shoe.



Sew in place. Unpick the long stitches once the ruffle is in place
(since you no longer need them).



Bring together the edges at the back of the shoe like shown:



Sew together, right sides together, with 1/2 inch seam allowance.



Press seam open.



Fold back the top of the shoe and pin together with the sole, right sides together,
making sure to catch the ruffle pieces at the edges.



Sew around.



Cut off excess from the ruffle pieces.



I like to serge or zig-zag around at this point.
(if I hadn't been too lazy to switch the 4 threads to navy blue on my serger,
it might have looked much nicer, but oh well)



Turn right sides out.



I added a small piece of elastic across to make sure the shoes stay on the little feet.
A shiny navy blue elastic would have looked cute - another note for next time.



Secure elastics with a few stitches. (I did one side on the machine, the other
by hand because it becomes too fiddly once you've done the first side.
You can't really access it with the machine.)







I hope you liked this Mila Baby shoe pattern from Fleeting Thing as much as I did.  They did a great job with the photos and how-to.


Have a good Tuesday...and Happy Birthday to my OLDEST Brother, Derek!  I love you.