As you know my baby turned 14 a couple of weeks ago. The weekend before Rachaels birthday the boys were busy working at Garys moms house, so we had a girlie weekend... perfect for a biggish felting project.
Rachael designed her slippers.. unfortunately we got the drawing wet so I can't show you.. but this is how the weekend went..
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| After drawing round her feet & cutting them out we worked out the slipper shape adding 1" to each side and 1.5" at toe & heel, and cut a template from newspaper |
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| We cut the resists from foam floor underlay.. and drew the inner design onto the template to make it easier for Rachael to lay out. They were going to be GOLDFISH |
From this point on Rachael worked on the slippers pretty much on her own with just the occasional helping hand to show her how to work it. I have a lovely big work table.. Rachael worked at one end and I worked at the other.
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| Rachael put sari silk fibre on the goldfish for scales, outined in red merino. We put silk chiffon on TOP of the blue areas to stop it disappearing into the orange layers which followed |
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| Orange for goldfish :) |
Now... as we planned to mad flat bottomed, slip on slippers.. We planned to make the cuts and remove the resists and then turn the heel part 'inside out' the tricky part was getting the tails on the right side!
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| We used 6 layers of Icelandic wool, the inner 2 layers were a pretty yellow. Rachael made fins from silk chiffon sari fabric |
Unfortunately, momma got muddled and the fish tails ended up on the wrong side - oops. So to rescue them we cut around the outside of the heels, placed the fish-tails on top and stitched them with merino wool yarn.
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| Rachael working hard |
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| After working and shaping you cant really tell that we sewed the seam. |
Rachael spent about 5 hours straight on both the Saturday and Sunday working on these.. I don't think she could quite believe how much she needed to work them to shrink 'em down enough & shape 'em :) she kept asking "is it done yet?" answer "no, another 100 rolls" - thank goodness she enjoyed every minute, and she certainly appreciates her felted slippers now she knows how much work they are.
I finished them off for her while she was at school by defining the lips with a few stitches.. sewing button eyes on (just normal buttons stacked so they look nice and boggley) and sewing some dusky orange leather soles on.
And the good news is.. she is actually wearing them!
7 comments:
Lovely! Maybe I will have to do this with my little chap as he refuses to wear any slippers!
awww arent they just gorgeous, your daughter did a great job on her slippers and now i bet she appreciates all the work that goes into a pair, Well Done Rachael xoxo
What wonderful slippers, Deborah!! Your daughter should be proud of all her hard work!
How is your mom doing?? My heart goes out to you at this stressful time. XXO-
Thanks ladies
Hannelore, yes definitely worth a go.. its a fun project to work on together (though for younger children I'd expect to be doing most of the work :) x
Karen, she certainly does appreciate them.. don't think she realised how much work slippers are lol. x
Heather she is chuffed to bits with them :) Rachael has wanted 'fishy' slippers for ages. Mom seems to be doing well.. hopefully might be home for the weekend.. thank you for asking xx
How sweet pairs. The fish looks naive and cute. Wonderful time with girl and she has your genes doing perfect felts.
I love the fishy slippers! What a brilliant design.
Thank you Lyn & Terrie :)
Rachael has always been very artistic and loved making things :) Guess it helps growing up in a house crammed with crafty stuff
xx
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