These baby booties have been giving me the fits. How can such a small and simple sewing project be so, well, so, that is to say, so very, Challenging?! Argh! I simply decided I had to defeat this thing. And so, I am proudly displaying the ONE bootie I have gotten together without problems. (You may take some time now to look and ogle.)
I actually tried to make a pair of these several months ago, as a gift for my husband's brother's third son. I tried (and tried...and tried....repeat) to understand how to line the pieces up. I followed the directions and looked at the pictures. It made no sense to me, but I got the three pieces together and stitched them. Ugh, it was a total disaster. I had pieces sewn on upside down and backwards and inside out. By the time I had everything sewn together, nice and snug and completely wrong, I could
see what was
supposed to happen. Yes. It made sense. But there was no way in h*ll I was going to pick all those little stitches out and do it over. You see, I was mad at it! I would not give it the satisfaction. It was going to have to stay that way and just accept its wrongness. The stupid mangled bootie kicked around my living room for
weeks before I finally tossed it out. But it never left my thoughts. No, it
haunted me. And so, weeks and weeks and many other sewing projects later, I have decided to confront this project again. Of course I had to recut the pattern pieces cuz the dang kid has grown. Sighs! So I did. And I remembered how to get the pieces together. And I proudly sewed the pieces together, all the while patting myself on the back and telling myself that I was a bootie making wonder woman. My joyful confidence was not long lived.
This is what the bootie looks after the pieces have been stitched together but before it has been turned right-side out. Looks good, right? The white you see is the lovely grippy fabric I decided to use this time because the aforementioned child may decide he wants to try standing on his dogs by the time he ever gets these booties. (He'll be twelve)
Not really. He'll be 5 months old in December. Not walking, but maybe wobbling or bouncing as mom or dad keeps him from proving the theory of gravity.
Lovely grippy fabric.
So what was the problem? The problem is, the first bootie I stitched looked, well, fabulous. Until I turned it right-side out. I had carefully pinned the three pieces together. But there were pieces sticking out all over the dang place. What the? How the? No prob, thought I. I'll just tuck them in and resew over the area. Except it didn't friggin' work. Nope, the same sproinging pieces were, well, sproinging. I tried. Again...and again...and, well repeat. My this point I was screaming at this little thing. I had spent some time stitching some lovely elastic and touch tape on the pieces before utterly screwing them up, and ... argh! But I was not going to be defeated. Yes, I put it down for the night. And the next night I pretended I was NOT paying ANY attention to the OTHER booties pieces, sitting there looking so innocent. I listened to music, I thought about other sewing projects. I managed to ignore it for 45 minutes. Then I picked them up. I pinned the !@#$%^& out of the pieces this time, and made Absolutely Sure the pieces lined up the way they were supposed to, whether they wanted to or NOT! Thus the glorious boot you see. Was it that easy? NO IT WAS NOT. Things TRIED to stick out. Stitches TRIED to go in the wrong places. BUT I would not ALLOW them to do so. So, as of this moment, child X is getting one lovely green boot with grippy fabric. Merry Christmas, kid.
Ok, this is part 2. I made another boot. Ok, ok, I made another TWO boots. Because my ADD (undiagnosed except by me) made me totally space out while I was cutting the pieces for the one, and it took me about 45 minutes before I focused on the fact that I was making a pair instead of just one. Very me, though. Very me. So I finished one of them, and damn these stupid things, there was a hole in it. AND I had made the boot that had the velcro closure going in the same direction as the one I had already made, which looks dumb. They are supposed to go in opposite directions. So I finished the second one, and that stupid boot had a hole in it, too. The hole came from the layers not getting completely tucked in while I sewed the pieces together. The same problem I had with the original boot. And I paid very close attention this time. Very close. It's just incredibly difficult to get all of the layers in there. It's hard to see them! So for the THIRD time I have created a bootie with a problem. SO very frustrating, but I feel good about myself for trying again and again AND AGAIN. The pattern is a pain. That's all there is to it! Here are the THREE failures:
Hole. Grrrr.....
Another hole. I'm done with this pattern! (New Conceptions) Phooey!
I am making three "grocery" tote bags. I bought this fantastic pattern from Keyka Lou on Etsy. I have already made three of them, and I'm back for more. I have decided to make one as a Christmas gift, one for my daughter on request, and one for myself. (Which I may try to sell, just to see if they would be marketable for me) I really want to see if making several at a time cuts down the manufacturing time at all. If I do decide to sell them, I would want to be more efficient with that. As it is, one takes me three hours. If I pay myself $10/hour and figure on $10.00 in materials costs, I'd have to charge $40.00 per bag. I'm not thinking they'd sell well at that cost. So I'm trying to cut down time and costs as much as I can. I love these bags, making them is fun, choosing fabric combinations are fun, and selling them would be great. We'll see.
