New boots from an old sweater

Last week my parents thought they were moving back to Florida, then things changed and now they are staying here. But when they were still under the impression that they were leaving, they packed up many boxes, sold and donated items they didn't need, and gave us many things they knew we would enjoy. Including a box of many old VHS Disney movies that are currently "in the vault" and unavailable on DVD. When I opened the box, I was, first, VERY excited to see my old book about the Icelandic Yulemen/Trolls.

You see, I spent 4 years of my childhood in Keflavik, Iceland on the Navy Base that used to be there (it was closed only a few short years ago, now). An Icelandic tradition, in the same vein as Santa for Americans, is to celebrate the Icelandic Yulemen. They are trolls that come to your home each night prior to Christmas, one by one, leaving gifts in your shoe if you place it in your windowsill at night. I'll post more on this later as we do this every year and it will be Lily's first year to participate....
But as I dug further down in the box, I found many items of clothing that my mom no longer had a need for, and wanted to give me "first dibs" on before she donated them.
Many were suits and other items that I'm still pondering a use for.... but two stuck out to me immediately...

The blue one immediately called my name, and I could tell it was just begging to be made into tiny ugg style boots for Miss Lily.

I quickly went about using one of her existing shoes to make a sole pattern, and decided to wing it on the upper pattern. I knew it needed a button, so i snagged a few off another article of clothing in the box, and I knew it needed yarn on it somewhere, so I grabbed an old skein of grey yarn I had in my closet, and off to work I went


When I was done, Lily had a tiny pair of ski-lodge worthy fuzzy boots to wear around the house. I used old denim for the soles to keep them soft but durable, and I used the grey yarn to "lace up" the sides with a "for looks only" criss-cross pattern below the button (it's hard to see in the photos). The button is functional and is held by a crocheted button hole made of the same grey yarn from above, and the ankles can be flipped down to look more like furry moccasins.





Hope you enjoyed this recon. Take a moment to post a comment and tell me about your latest experience re-purposing something. Share a link if you'd like :)





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