Barefoot Baby Bloom Booties

Barefoot Baby Bloom Booties

Makes 1 pair.

The blogger linked below has great instructions, great pictures, and overall a very easy technique to make these adorable booties.  I made two pairs in an evening!  The only things I changed were my technique (I used all needle and thread instead of hot glue), the number of petals, and the size (made for an 8- and 12-month old vs. the bloggers 2.5 month old)
Slightly adapted from: I Can Dabble

T-shirt (I used one purchased from Michael’s, on sale for $2)

Coordinating Needle & thread
Coordinating felt (you only need a little for each shoe, so go digging through your scrap pile!)
Glue Gun, if preferred over needle & thread

I Can Dabble's writer took a great shortcut, using the finished hem of the t-shirt for the straps.  Eliminates a big sewing step.  Always a good thing.  So be sure to cut as close to the hem line as possible, and make sure each shoe has two-3" straps  (For an older child (over 1), you may need to increase the strap length to 3-1/2"-4").

Cut out a coordinating felt circle (approx 2.5 inches) and sew on both straps to be an under-the-sole strap and behind-the-heel strap. 

Next, create a 5 petal flower template on a piece of paper. The flower should end up being approximately 2.5 inches in diameter. Pin the template on your t-shirt and cut out 18 flowers (9 for each shoe).  ***I increased this number to 26; 13 for each shoe which gives the flower one extra layer of petals and an overall fuller look.

Take one petal and fold it in half. Then fold it in half again. Do this with 4 petals. Arrange each petal onto your felt circle so that the corners meet in the middle (you're essentially using each folded flower to be one petal). Now hot glue or sew them on. If you use hot glue, you’ll want to also hot glue each petal fold to itself.  Check out the original blogger's photos if you're confused.

Now take your next 4 petals and fold them the same way. This time when gluing them on, rotate your felt circle so that the new petals are lying across ½ of 2 bottom petals (check her blog for pics!).  Then, repeat again for a 3rd layer... again rotating slightly.  Basically, you don't want the petals stacked exactly on top of one another.

Take your last petal piece and fold it in half. Roll one corner into the other, kind of creating a cone shape. This will create the bud of the flower. Hot glue, or sew, the bud to the middle. Take the top layer of petals and add a dab of glue to the center and adhere it to the bud. This will give your flower more fluff and body.

Repeat with the other shoe, and then... you're done!