Free Tutorial Friday - Dress Up Shoes

Every time I see my little one teetering around in her high heel princess shoes, I think first that she is going to break her ankle or fall down the stairs in them and then second that I REALLY need to make some simple dress up shoes for her. 

This is what I came up with out of some fabric scraps and about 10 minutes.

You need fleece, some jersey fabric (I used confetti dot fabric - or you could use ribbon), and either stiffened felt or foamie sheets.

Take a shoe that fits and trace around it.  I used a fabric marker, but you could use a sharpie, pen, crayon, whatever you have.  

You should have 4 soles cut from fleece.  Place them over the stiffened felt or foamie and cut out the lining (2).  If I could have found a decent pair of scissors around here, I would have put the felt down on top of the fleece and cut all 3 layers at once. 

Then, you need to put down one layer of fleece and put the felt on top.  Then, lay the confetti fabric over that.  Then put the last piece of fleece on top.  

Top stitch the shoe.  It can get a little messy because the fleece stretches.  Just trim it. 

Tie a knot or bow with your 2 straps.  Then, trim off any excess.  You could tie it while it's on the child's foot just to make sure the foot will fit.  I just tied it a little loose.

These babies are slippery so you need to make them non skid.  I just used some puffy paint.  It's a trick I learned from crochet.  You could also write your child's name on the bottom in puffy paint which would probably thrill her. 

The other option is to cut your sole bottom from non skid shoe fabric.  It's like the stuff on the bottom of footie pajamas.  It is expensive - I think it's $6.00 a yard, but it's only about 20" wide.  It is hard to find.  Normally it is hidden in with the fusible webbing.  You may need to ask.  It won't fray, so you can just follow the same steps as above, but cut 1 fleece, 1 no skid bottom, and 1 foamie layer for each shoe.  I think that it only comes in white.