the Little Princess' Boot Boutique

 The Little Princess has been wearing school shoes for the last few weeks. School shoes aren't great on feet which are already marked from the splints, when they are sized to fit over the splints, but you can't wear the splints due to the marking. Add a night away from her nice pressure relieving mattress, replacing it with hospital bed and hospitally stiff white sheets, and you'll get a pretty pattern of black and red bruises and pressure marks, which aren't going away any time soon.

What's a girl to do? To heal, the feet need to be nice and warm, cosily cushioned, free from pressure and not allowed to go too blue from cold.

We'd go shopping, but tLP's powerchair decided to collude with the weather gods and broke down on Friday, in the rainstorm which started at 3.10 precisely, the very moment when all the children were released from school on the one day of the school term when I go and collect tLP myself, on foot. Pushing a 125kg wheelchair with a not-quite-that-much-but-it-didn't-feel-far-off weight child on top home in the rain ranks as one of the less relaxed way to start the school holidays.

Still, Saturday morning loomed and we neither of us really fancied heading shopwards.

Enter, the Little Seamstress. First and most importantly, empty the fabric cupboards in search of the perfect cloth. Sheepskin's a must for the inside, and a nice pink flowery corduroy seemed to be a decent match for some seamless summery slippers.

First step, place your pins.
Next, select a suitable stitch - hearts and flowers were tLP's choice this time; she's clearly in a girly mood this weekend. 

 It's a serious business; our sewing machine works with a start/stop button, so you don't need to be able to work the foot pedal in order to make it go. tLP was not impressed with having to pose for the camera before pressing the button.

Stitch the fabrics together along all four edges. Next, take the rectangle, fold it into thirds, and sew through all six layers of fabric for the toes. Note to self: find a replacement needle before trying the next sewing project.

Slip the slippers on, and get very bored as Mummy marvels at the softness and cosy cushioned-ness of them. Debate the fastenings - buttons, poppers or ribbon? Have a ferret around in the bottom of the cupboard and come up with the perfect stop gap solution - soft and stretchy elastic with pre-stitched velcro fastenings, surely designed with the ankle in mind.*

 And it's a rubbish picture because the sun was actually shining. But there wasn't time to take a better one, because we had to go to Grannie's house and show Grannie and "Do you know, I will tell Grannie I maked them all by myself and my Grannie will say `I don't believe it' ."

And so we went to Grannie's house, and we showed Grannie, and Grannie said "Did you make them all by yourself? I don't believe it!" And there was much happiness in the house

And then we had to take this picture, to prove that the girly mood persisted - although only long enough to model the dress, which was then removed and replaced with more acceptable jeans and a jumper.

And the slippers aren't perfect, but I think as a first ever sewing project they're actually pretty fantastic!

Tia

*not quite - but then what else do you do with the new elastic straps which come with every ten leg bags?