how make booties | Living DIY Style

As many of you already know, there is nothing more satisfying than watching a baby kick or crawl around with a pair of handmade baby shoes that you made for them. The first pair of baby shoes I made for my first daughter were a pair of crib shoes. I can still remember the giddy feeling I had while I watched her crawl around the house in those cute little shoes. At the time she was challenging herself, and trying to grab hold of anything she possibly could to assist her as she bravely tried to stand up. However, my heart kept breaking as she would constantly slip on our hardwood floors. This gave me motivation to tackle my first pair of grippy bottomed crib shoes! I didn’t start with an easy fabric, oh no, that would be too simple. I started with deerskin leather. My sewing machine at the time kicked and screamed at my demand, but some how my determination was stronger than my machine’s rebellious attitude! In the end, once I slipped those cute little crib shoes on her feet, I realized it was worth the battle. I knew this was just the beginning of something fun and wonderful. They stayed on wonderfully, they looked adorable, and kept her feet extra toasty warm on cold nights, what more could I ask for?

Back in 2010 I finally decided it was time to work out the details and put together a tutorial and sewing pattern for the crib shoe to sell. The Reversible Crib Shoe sewing pattern was a huge success. Everyone seemed to love the idea of a reversible, seamless crib shoe.

Recently I’ve had quite a few friends give birth to new babies. My friends automatically know what to expect from me when a new baby is born- handmade baby shoes of course! As I was excitedly choosing my fabrics for the baby shoes I planned on making, I started coming up with new fun details to add to Reversible Crib Shoe pattern. It was too good to keep all to myself, so I decided to update the pattern with three additional styles. While I was at it, I kept thinking about all the requests I’ve had over the last five years for bigger sizes. So in addition to the extra sizes, I decided to add three new sizes- Newborn, 24 months, and 36 months.

All in all I’m very pleased with the new designs and sizes. I also completely revamped the old tutorial. The new tutorial reflects the experience I have gained in writing and designing tutorials over the past few years. There are tons of well thought out pictures and easy to follow directions for each design. I’m certain there will be little to no confusion when you make these. Look at these adorable baby feet in his new crib shoes! Oh those little rollie-pollie ankles, love them. The best part is, it’s available now!