Wayfarer Shoes

I am stoked to be a part of the Storyteller Team at Twig and Tale  for 2026. I've loved being more involved in the T&T community since participating in a few of their sew and shows last year, and have consistently been impressed not only by the quality of their sewing patterns, but also by the company ethos around slow and intentional sewing, sustainability and diversity. The fact that they are a NZ based company just tops the cake! 

The Storyteller theme for March was Rhythm. The first thing that leapt to mind for me was the pitter-patter rhythm of my wee toddler’s feet, as she had recently mastered the art of bipedal locomotion… Well, I say this, but the mastery is still somewhat questionable. At the moment, her footsteps carry the hurriedly erratic, drunken beat of someone with considerably more enthusiasm than skill, alarmingly frequently interrupted by a solid thump or two as she falls and gets up again.

So I knew I wanted to make her a pair of Wayfarer shoes to celebrate this significant milestone. As I’d also like her to one day be able to put on her shoes independently, I thought it would be a neat idea to embroider different designs on them, so she could begin to recognize the difference between her left and right shoe. Then it struck me that it would be even better if I embroidered her initials—perhaps she could start learning some letters at the same time! (There is nothing quite like the idealistic ambitions of a first-time parent.)

Enter the delightful Woodland Alphabet Embroidery.

This was my first foray into hand embroidery, and the parallels with my daughter—both of us stumbling along while learning a new rhythm—were not lost on me. I had this idyllic vision of a needle moving smoothly in and out of fabric stretched drum-tight across an embroidery hoop, rapidly weaving together these adorable woodland motifs. The reality involved far more pauses as I tried to figure out 

• How to separate two threads from six without knotting the entire skein (why six?)
• Why mysterious loops of thread randomly appeared on the back while stitching (I thought I’d pulled the thread all the way through, I swear)
• How to undo a badly misaligned stitch once it had been made - If there’s a way to do this without unthreading the needle, please let me know—
• Because I also found threading the needle more challenging than usual. I’m convinced the ends of embroidery thread are fluffier. (Did I mention that at one point I even broke one of those fragile looking silver needle threaders with the little person’s face printed on the side? In my defense it did come from a $2 shop sewing kit I have had for yonks years)

Observe the chaos...

Fortunately, the lovely T&T embroidery guide holds your hand through each of the designs and clearly breaks down how every stitch is done. At least that part of the process was refreshingly straightforward, even if the accuracy of my stitching still leaves much to be desired!

I also tackled the new challenge of sewing with leather, as I wanted something a little hardier than plain fabric for the soles of the slippers. I managed to get my hands on two small offcuts at the local emporium, which turned out to be more than enough for my needs. (It's astonishing how little material these shoes require). I was a little worried about the bulk in some areas due to the wool outer, but by sewing slowly with a leather needle, my machine handled it beautifully. The lining is a thin rayon, and both the wool and rayon were scrap remnants from a past project.

A fairly chunky sandwich...

For extra cushioning I sandwiched some felted wool (a jumper that was given to me by a friend who accidentally ran it through a hot wash rendering it unwearable) into the sole. I basted this in place to the lining and trimmed around the edges to lessen the already considerable bulk of the seam allowance when it all came together. 

I also have learnt from my current limited experience of shoeing wriggly toddlers the indispensable usefulness of a heel tab so included small leather ones. 

I enjoyed the whole experience so much that I went on to make a second pair.  This time, I used the same technique in the Woodland Alphabet letters but stitched the character from her Chinese name instead. It turned out to be a very useful exercise, as up until then I hadn’t been able to write it with much confidence (we had chosen a rather obscure character due to traditional considerations around stroke count and its compatibility with her family name.) It is romanized as “Xi” (pronounced similar to "she") and means happiness. It is common to use a doubling of a character in one's name (in her case Xixi) as a nickname for kids, so I thought it'd be cute to embroider that on her shoe as that's what my mandarin speaking family and friends call her.

I was pleased to find that my rhythm was a little smoother the second time around, and I was happy with how well it came together. There are still many imperfections in the neatness of the stitches, but I hope that is something that will gradually improve with time and practice. 

For this pair, I again used the same felted wool jumper for the outer, with a linen scrap from another past project for the lining.

Sizing details: The pattern came with a very helpful and exact shoe fitting chart. I was nervous about how well I'd stick to the 6mm seam allowances so erred on the larger side. I made the first pair in a baby size 5. This turned out to be a bit roomy, so the second I made in a size 4. (note both definitely had marginally bigger SAs than 6mm due to the thickness of the material I was working with and my inaccurate sewing.) This is currently perfect when wearing thick socks with just a smidge of wriggle room for growth. For reference my toddler currently wears a EU size 18 (when barefoot) or 19 (with socks).  

Being a first time mum I am currently prone to much introspective musings as I watch my daughter experience many things for the first time- learning and growing and tick off one milestone after the next. This month's theme has allowed me to take pause and reflect on the up and downs of learning a new rhythm, and appreciate the unique pace each journey takes (and perhaps to have a smidge less anxiety and angst should it take a bit longer than textbook averages!)  I am look forward to exploring more of this delightful new craft of hand embroidery,  and in the meantime my wee toddler is already launching into playgroup adventures in these cozy wee slippers. 

Slippers in action

Note patterns were gifted as part of the Storyteller Program. Opinions expressed are my own.