Pirate Shoes

I am fortunate enough to be a position to purchase some bulk materials from one of the local textile houses. I had visited their show room a number of time and one of the ladies on the front reception asked me to make for her something cute for their little grandchild (0-6months). I presented her with a selection of fabrics and she chose a pirate theme.

I have used this fabric in the past for bibs and changing mats, but it looks cuter on shoes! I now make my shoes with natural fibre batting and the heel of the shoe has my logo embroidered up it and the size embroidered on the inside. Every batch of shoes that I made improves and looks more professional.

I have often dreamt of doing a range of pirate wear clothing. I can imagine my daughter running around in a little wench or a little pirate outfit. I keep on thinking that my sewing possibilities for her will open up when she starts to walk around. At the moment her clothing is horribly practical as anything too loose will hamper her ability to pull herself up on furniture and skirts just get in the way of her crawling.

In other news, I have my first retail order for 6 pairs of “bat” shoes. Three shoes in 0-6 months and 3 shoes in 6-12 months. So the last week has been spent getting packaging and marketing materials together so that my product looks professional. The process for making the shoes has become more streamlined and I have tops, soles and heels sitting there waiting on being sewn together when an order comes in.

This is packaging version 1. I spend about two weeks vising various packaging wholesalers on this side of the city. Paper boxes, plastic bags and I decided on clear PVC boxes.

The back of the box has a little hang-sell tag for shops and the internal graphics were refined by a close friend who is a graphic design artist. Overall, I am quite pleased with the result and the boxes look good all lined up with shoes in them!