Sunday, June 19, 2011

Do-It-Yourself Toe Blooms!!!

So I found a website called: http://www.toeblooms.com/ that sell these stunning wraps that ruffle around your baby girls little ankles and feet and have a pretty flowers on the top:

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I love love loved these but honestly didn't want to pay the $25.00 plus shipping just for one pair  so, I thought WHY couldn't I make those myself?! And that's exactly what I did!


First, I started with an old cotton skirt:

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Then, I took a stretchy elastic band that was close to the same color as the skirt. This I wrapped around my daugther's ankle and foot to measure. It measured 11 inches (and she's 8 months old FYI), so I laid it flat on the table and cut 12 inches to give me an extra inch of material to work with and hem.

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(NOTE: You can always by the pre-made stretchy ribbon at the store, but they only come in so many colors and types, and I wanted something more frayed and rustic which is why I chose to make it myself. IF you are using a pre-made band skip the next few steps where I explain how to figure eight, and sew them)


After cutting two 12 inch pieces, I went to my old skirt and cut a 4 inch by 50 inch strip out of the bottom of the skirt. This would eventually be used to make the ruffles for the band. I didn't cut this very carefully because I knew that once I sewed it to the elastic band I would trim both sides to make it even. Plus the 4 inch width gave me room to make mistakes if the line from the sewing machine went off a little.


Now comes the tricky part. I then used my Ruffler Foot attachment on my sewing machine to make the ruffle for the bands.

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This can be a little tricky because you put your elastic band below the ruffler and then you thread your cottom fabric through the Ruffler (and above yet on top of the elastic band) so that in the end the Ruffler ruffles the cotton fabric and sews it to your elastic without ruffling the elastic. I am a complete novice of a sewer and I was able to accomplish this so if you are new to sewing and have a Ruffler Foot attachment you will be able to do this to I am sure! Just practice on some old stuff beforehand so you don't waste anything expensive.


So basically I took the cotton stip from the old skirt + the 12 inch elastic band, used my ruffler to ruffle and attach them together which made a lovely 12 inch elastic ruffle band for one of the Toe Blooms:

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Because I originally made it around 4 or 5 inches wide, the ruffle on the band was WAY to wide, and in places I had sewn it a little crooked so I just took my scissors and cut a pretty even edge on both sides so that the entire band was only about 2 inches wide.


Then I repeated all of the above steps for the second band. Afterwards I took both bands and wrapped them around my daughter's ankles and feet to get a final measure. Then I pinned them in place and removed them to sew.


(NOTE: As it turns out, giving the extra inch was not necessary. I originally measured 11 inches and cut 12, but since there is some give with the elastic, I really only needed the 11 inches. So I had about 1 inch extra that I ended up trimming off the band).


It's hard to describe how these actually go around the ankle and foot but it's sort of a figure eight. The trick is that they have to wrap around the ankle, cris cross over the top of the foot and then wrap around the bottom of the foot. This is how the underneath should look:

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(REMEMBER: The cris cross is on TOP of the foot not underneath or behind the ankle)


I hand sewed the seams together in such a way that the seam would be right at the cris cross because the flower would then hide the seam. Now all that was left was to attach the flowers!! I used 2 tyes of silk flowers, some maroon ones and then some little purple ones.

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I started by taking the flowers off the wire stems and then completely took the flowers apart. Once you do this you will find that the inside of a silk flower has a bunch of plastic pieces inside to help it keep it's shape. Just take those all out, because you want your flower to lay flat. After dismantling the flowers I decided to do four layers of the maroon petals and two layers of the smaller purple which made for a nice full flower.

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Then I wipped out my hot glue gun to put it to work! Photobucket

I started by hand sewing the first layer of the maroon flower to the actual Toe Bloom band. Then, after sewing I reinforced it by adding a few drops of hot glue as well. Then I hot glued the remaining layers of flowers one on top of the other. Once all the flower layers were glued in place I did a tiny drop of hot glue on the back of the faux diamond and placed it directly in the center of the flower.



And the end result was.......

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Then, just to make it Over-The-Top I went ahead and made a matching hair accessory!!!

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She looked soo cute today in church!

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Whew!! All in a days work!! Total cost = Less than $5.00!!!!

12 comments:

  1. Precious! Thank you so much, I literally just canceled an order for these barefoot sandals I placed earlier tonight. $20 for a pair of sandals, when you just showed me how to make them for like $1?! Much appreciated!:)

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  2. Love these! Thanks so much for the step-by-step instructions. I'm making some for my 2-month-old for Easter and your site has helped me figure out how to do it. Thank you.

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  3. yes hello i came across your site after going to toeblooms as well. i absolutely adore those toe blooms but find them to be a wee bit on the pricey side. i would love to do this myself but 1. i cannot sew for the life of me. and 2. i do not have a sewing machine. i was wondering if you would be willing to make a few pairs for me in select colors and i would be more than happy to pay you for the materials and your time. my baby girl i due in 4 weeks and i would absolutely love to have these for her!

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  4. Being a mom yourself it is sad you took another mom's idea that she has put time, money and developement into to knock off! Shame on you! You even used photographs that she paid for her on your blog to copy her. Maybe you could work on your own fresh idea instead of taking money out of a pocket that has spent some of her own to get her where she is today!

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    1. If she made a website, set up a tax ID, named her company and started mass selling these? Yeah, then you could say "shame on you" for stealing an idea and using it as her own. But she didn't. She made a pair for her own daughter. Just one pair.

      Its people like you, who have no qualms about lashing out in print on a website and judging others so severely when you know NOTHING and have NO RIGHT to say anything. Are you the owner of Toe Blooms? Did Toe Blooms patten their idea? No? Then butt out and be quiet. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything.

      It galls me to no end that society thinks they have the right to judge others and SHAME them for every little thing.

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  5. Lisa---
    People (especially frugal moms) make things to save money! Which there isn't a whole lot of if you would take a good look around you. If you want to shovel out $25-$35 for some toe blooms go ahead, some people will because they aren't crafty or they simply just don't want to do it.. She made some toe blooms (beautifully if I may add.) for her baby girl that look just as good as a pair of $30 ones, & she saved some cash for more important things like formula too! Good for her, shame on you for being rude!

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  6. Lisa--My goodness, it's not like she claimed the idea was hers. She gave the website out so people could go to it and purchase them if they wanted and gave credit to toe blooms for the product which she loves. Think about all the things out there that have "knock off" versions. Come on. Props to the blogger for having some initiative and craftiness to save some money! I saw these also at a boutique and I am going to try making a pair for my little girl. I make her hair bands and bows as well... OH NO!! someone else has made bows in the past. shame on me for trying to do it on my own.

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  7. Oh wow Lisa did you really just go there!? And I am guessing you do NOT craft, because if you do there may be a slim chance you have made something that someone else put their time, money and development into. Shame on you for not thinking before typing! Really harsh for something so petty. Sounds like someone needs a reality check, especially on today's economy. By the way the "knock off" blooms are great! Just the tutorial I was looking for my also 8 month old. Oh and NO I won't feel a bit guilty making these.

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  8. Lisa must have more money than the rest of us. Thank you so much for sharing. I love making things for my granddaughters

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  9. Love this. My daughter was given a pair at her shower and my granddaughter is now wearing these. I, too, wanted to make some for her and found your blog. You were very creative in using an old skirt. Thanks for your time and information.

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  10. I just came across this blog. Ana actually she did have a patten pending when she contacted me a few years ago on etsy. Pattening something takes a few years to do so not months. Although the ones I made were so different then hers she didn't want to hear that. Did I back down? No because hers at the time had elastic around the ankle and would wrap around one toe. Therefore she named them toe blooms. Mine had an elastic around the ankle, another single piece of elastic that ran from ankle, went about the foot and attached to a piece that wrapped around the entire foot right before you got the little toes. She had nothing like that on her site yet tried to intimidate me with lawers. I told her to stop harassing me or I would get my lawyer involved and I never heard from her. I give props to you for making this diy because not everyone can afford a pair of these beautiful foot sandals. Thank you hun for making this for all mommies. The sun is huge and shines for everyone. Whether you want to make them to sell or make them for your baby. I guarantee you will be making your own creations using materials that others would not think of using. They will be made to your liking so don't listen to negative people. You're not taking anything away from anyone. Xoxo

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