Slippers, Festive Santorini

cozy

I am not going to sew too much this week. I had some routine surgery on Monday, and am recovering well.

Made some slippers last week, and started a project I had no intention of doing! 

The slippers were the follow-up to the ones I made in August, this time with the boiled wool remnants. The pattern is not great, and having made them once I learned some more tricks that I would do if I make them again.

It is VERY THICK. I did learn to use the 'float' function on my Juki DX7 sewing machine... this allows thick layers to move more easily under the presser foot, and it helped. However, I also decided to quilt the batting to the footbed so that I can trim it out of the seam allowance. I should have done the same for the top part. This would have allowed the pieces to turn out more smoothly.

I added a leather sole to assist in slip resistance.

I still need a bit more padding (an insole of some kind).

leather sole

quilted batting

   

  

close up of boiled wool

a close enough match

The surprise project was inspired by the December pop-up sew-along 'Sew Festive' at PatternReview. I like to participate in the pop-ups. In fact, the first slippers were made during the August pop-up sew-along which started as a footwear idea. The pop-ups are wide open to interpretation (unlike the contests), but I like to try to be 'true' to the host's original idea. So I made footwear, and now have two pairs of slippers. Ottawa daughter calls the first pair 'her' slippers when she comes over!

This month I really started out with no idea, and it took two people to mention 'Santorini tank' and 'dupioni silk' in the same sentence before I sat up and took notice. While I am not as "bad" (subjective term here) as some, I do occasionally buy fabric on spec. I have had in my possession a small length of purple plaid dupioni silk that I purchased when we lived in Germany. It is 90 cm wide, and 1.5 m long, and every once in a while I look at it and wonder what can you be.

cave art?

I have already made the Santorini top - the pattern is in my possession and fitted. This is such a good pairing; it is disappointing that I could not make that link myself!!!

Decision made... I also used some scrap electric blue dupioni as facing (since there was not quite enough of the plaid).

AND I am using some plain silk that is of an even older vintage as underlining. Not a great colour match, but it is on the inside. No problem. It is so old, that it seems to have cave art drawn on it! Seriously, I have no idea how or why that is there. Looks like one of my daughters might have dabbled, but really, drawing on fabric is not easy... so it will just be a quirky addition to the top.

I have cut both out, and am hoping that my underlining is the right size. Since I will be flatlining it, it has to be pretty exact: not too small (which pulls the main fabric) and not too big, which will just be sloppy!

I have finished another pair of socks, and half of the next sock. Hoping to get this last pair done for Christmas, and MAYBE one more. I am very happy with the look of this current pair; I am recreating traditional work socks, and it is looking great! (knitting is easy to do while recovering!)

I used the bobbin (from the Almonte textile museum) as a 'noestepinne' to wind up the yarn, and it worked well! This ends up with a 'centre pull' which is easier to use than a wrap around method I have used in the past!

"noestepinne"

pair number 2

work socks