Pointe stile baby booties project

musiumuse.etsy.com

Just wanted to show a little bit of my desk top. I'm not a good writer, however would like to show some backstage letting people to know how it's made.

I made my first ballerina pointe style booties with silk laces last spring just to test how it goes and literally forgot it, until the new order in my Etsy shop few days ago. I was really so exited and thinking about some more colors.

Santa's Helpers Season is Open

In my Etsy shop

Only about now I realized it left two months until Christmas and less than two until all the gifts for tiny and regular feet should be dispatched. I see my clients coming and asking, and dreaming. Some of them are still waiting till the last moment. My suggestion would be do not wait until the Christmas gifts panic begins, moreover I made this announcement is for my self too! ;) So don't miss out.

Common felt making mistakes

Today I would like to describe few of common felt-making beginners mistakes and give some advises to be better. I have accidentally found wet felted booties tutorial  few months ago and have chosen as a bad example. Deeply sorry about that. Booties are cute and looks cozy. And even form of last is so pretty.

• Laying wool directly on shoe lasts. 

Shoe lasts are great in manufacturing felted booties, shoes, slipper, etc. but it should be used almost at the end of whole process. It lets to make a pretty form much easier. It also helps to felt stronger as we have hard surface inside the boot while felting.  But I deeply do not recommend to  use it at the start of the job.  Why I do not recommend? 

• Using to small template.

As I mentioned at the precious post, wool must shrink enough while felting. I would recommend at least 1/4 but 1/3  would be better. So you should use a bigger flat template. I prefer polyethylene foam sheet, because it is stable and flexible when I need to pull it out. 

This is how my set looks like. I also use tulle, olive soap and hot water.

Size matters in felt-making proccess

Size matters

Here I'll try to give some tips for felted product buyers and felt-making beginners as well. I make felted footwear mainly so basically I have it in my mind and I'm talking about it. Why? Because my colleague recently has shared some links and photos to some slippers and baby booties witch were... Well I can't say that stuff was not felted enough, it was pre-felted. Not sure is it legal to share a link to these products.But here are some advises. 

• Felted footwear mustn't be  fluffy. It must be hard felted and solid. 
• If you are tying to make slippers by your self be sure it shrinks enough. Yes it takes hours of hard work. That's ok, that's normal.
• Shoe last would help.
• Well made felt cost a lot. Normally it cost more than all these pre-felted items.
• Well felted slippers or shoes might be worn up to one - two years. Depend how frequently. I'm working at home in my slippers, for example.
  
  

Slipper sizing

In my Etsy shop

Here are my slippers sizing for babies, infant girls and women in sizes I am able to manufacture at the moment. There is a gap between some age group but I'm working on to fill it with some new pairs of beautiful shoe lasts.

Please pay attention on insole length given below. It is accurate. The foot should flush to the wall while measuring. 
Tips and advises are welcome :) 

Lets talk about the soles

In my Etsy shop

I have been searching the ideal slipper soles material for years. I tried natural latex liquid that was easy to apply but totally unsustainable product. It ribbed off easy and got dirty after short.

Then I started using leather that was fine until first washing. I also tried out some micro-porous sole sheet, that has to be glued to felt with help of toxic glue and sewn after. Toxic glue was not the material I wanted to work with at the home with to my girls playing around so I kept searching.

Today I'm using a kind of silicone liquid that has no odor and the label say its truly safe. Of course I had to play whit it for a while until I learned to finish my slippers quite pretty. The negative side of material I'm using now is being slippery on wet surfaces.

In my Etsy shop

So I suggest my clients do not forget they are buying indoor footwear. The soles are made to be stable on dry surfaces (it really woks on it well), but it's not a good idea to walk around the pool or wash the floor with wet wet mop and then walk on these wet floor. It would be uncomfortable.

And I'm still do not give up searching for something even better...

Even More Glitter! / Dar daugiau blizgučių!

Felted Slippers in my Etsy shop

I finally really started making felted ballet flats no only for little girls but for women as well. One of my returning client even started thinking of wearing in her office. Why not? Go ahead, I said.

Particullary these are made of natural Tiroler Bergschaf. I really love whis sort of wool because it felt perfectly and wears nicelly.  

Felted Slippers in my Etsy shop