Boot Sleeves Tutorial…

Okay, my aim for this tute is short, sweet, easy and quick. The boot sleeves tute is a follow up to the Knit Top Refashion. If you haven’t checked it out you might like to take a peek before reading on… it’s okay I’ll wait .

With this tutorial your little princess will always have lovely co-ordinated footwear!

Right, here’s what you’ll need (approximate only as how much fabric will depend on the height of your boot to be covered.

I used:

• Less than 1 fat quarter of print cotton
• 2 Collar offcuts from Knit top refashion
• approx 1meter of bias tape
• 2 buttons & a glue gun (optional)

1. Attach bias tape to three sides of your  2 collar offcuts as shown in the photo below (photo shows one completed and one before attaching bias but you’ll need to do both). I stretched the knit slightly as it fed through on the bottom edge as I wanted this ‘tongue’ piece to have a flared shape. Sit these aside for now.

2. Cut two 1” strips from the short side of your print fabric (this is for the decorative rolled rossettes)

3. Cut remaining fabric into two – I wanted the boot sleeves to have a ruched appearance so to do this you will need to ensure the height of the fabric is taller than the boot height as the longer the height the more it will be ruched and it will need to be wide enough to wrap the circumfrence of the boot with seam allowances.

4. Take one of the pieces and wrap it around your boot ensuring you overlap enough material for the seam allowance and pin.

*** You can see in the above picture that I had about an extra 3 inches of height in the fabric (at top and folded at bottom)***

5. When you are happy with how the fabric is sitting cut the fabric to size (again allowing for seam allowance – something I notoriously overlook at times ).

6. This will give you a shape similar to my photo below. You need two of these so you will then need to use this piece as a template to cut the second pattern piece by placing the right sides of fabric together, pinning (if you can be bothered) and then cutting.

7. Now you will need to iron your top & bottom hems (I folded it over about a 1/4” pressed and then folded again) and then topstitch – I did this from the underside as in the below picture just as personal preference.
NOTE: I didn’t do this (and would tweak how I made them next time to do this ) I would at this point determine where the ‘tongue pieces’ – see step 10 -  are going and fold them into the top hem to stitch in place whilst topstitching the top hem.

8. No pictures for this step, sorry, but its straightforward – I hope! Measure two lengths of bias tape that match up with the height of the boot leg from the top edge to about 1” above where the heel meets the sole (you don’t want it going all the way down because not only will it not sit properly but I imagine that it would get very dirty and tattered very quickly if it were to scuff the ground – not a good look). Remember to allow about 1/2” extra length as you need to fold and press each end in so that the top and bottom of the bias strip is not exposed … wait here’s a photo that I hope helps – just click on the photo to enlarge it so it’s easier to read…

9. Sew a basting/gathering stitch (the longest straight length stitch on your machine) at either unfinished end of your sleeve pieces and gather each end to match the finished length of your bias tape pieces. Then attach your bias to the boot sleeve pieces encasing the gathered raw edge inside the bias.

10. Now because I didn’t do this at step 7 I now attached the tongue pieces but I had to put an extra piece of bias along the top edge encasing the top hem to hide any exposed edges… so much easier if you just attach the tongue piece at step 7 encasing it in the top hem.

11. Now to finish use your 1” strips to make rolled fabric rosettes as I did for the Knit Top Refashion buttons and attach to the tongue piece.

12. I then used 3 plastic snap sets on each sleeve on the bias strips but if you don’t have a press machine thingy you probably could use a number of different fastener styles such as hook & eyes, sew in snaps, Velcro (probably wouldn’t look too nice though) or even buttons with either button holes or hat band elastic loops etc.



Woo Hoo… just in time for a victory dance (why is it my tutorials never end up seeming all that short?… hmmm I just hope it makes sense, feel free to ask any questions if it doesn’t). There are many possibilities for variation of design with this - I may just make some variations on this, to go with different outfits.

So here’s the boot before…(and yes I know the toes are all scuffed but that’s how toddler/little peoples favourite boots get!)

And here’s with the boot sleeves…

And finally, with the rest of the refashioned knit…

Hope you enjoyed the tute – I’d love to see pics of any you guys make if you choose to – and before you go, have a browse of my blog, check out some of my other tutorials and be sure to come back soon to see what I’m up to…

And let’s not forget to check out some of the sites on my side bar that host absolutely awesome linky parties where you’ll find a never ending supply of craftiness to inspire you!