I got a chance to be on a workshop on how to make these traditional Finnish homemade shoes (n. tallukas pl. tallukkaat). I've been wanting to learn how to make them for more than ten years and I'm so happy now
Here http://www.kotiposti.net/narvasoft/museo/vkm/museo703.htm you can see the traditional versions (pictures 3,4 and 6), but of course I had to do something completely different. The others ended up calling my shoes Robin Hood Boots, I can kind of understand why...





The traditional shoes have been made on a relatively small area in central Finland from circa 19th century. The traditional materials were anything that could be recycled and would be warm, so old woollen socks, sweaters, felt, flannel was used for different parts of these shoes. They even used parts of old shoes to make new ones. These were especially popular during the world wars, because of lack of material of any kind.

For my shoes I used mostly new materials, mainly because I happened to have suitable new materials instead of recycled materials. Theres three layers in the shoe. The outer and inner fabrics are wool fabric and the middle layer is knitted wool. The soles also have several layers. The inner sole is made of three layers of fabric then theres a thick wool sole and a rubber sole. Inside the shoe theres also a removable liner that I made using a regular cardboar liner on witch I stitched some felt I had lying around.

I machine stitched the fabrics together, I didn't want to follow any of the traditional designs so I just winged the design and then copied it to the other shoe. Almost everything else is hand stitched. Traditionally there's holes for laces, but I don't like using those metal things (because I'm not good at it), so I had to do something else, hence the green cords.

I have walked with my shoes today. It's about -20 Celsius degrees and my feet were completely warm, but it's funny how I can feel the ground through the soles. These shoes might be a bit too large for me, but I hope a thick pair of woollen socks will fix that problem. Other than that they are very comfortable and definitely warm.

I'm happy to answer any questions, but I won't be writing a tutorial and unfortunately I only have pictures of the finished shoes.

I haven't posted anything in a while, so now that I made and photographed something I decided to share.

Here are some of the cards I made in this series.

"Friend"


This one is too difficult to translate...


"Loved one"


"The sun"


"A shy dream"

Here's first thing I've knitted this year.
In action
and flat.

I made this clock for my mother for Christmas as she loves fishing. I have to give gredit to my husband who helped me by painting the papers I used (the fish is from some prochure) as I had so many things I had to finish in time.

I  like the way it came out even though I would have preferred to make more things myself. I really ran out of time and had to by a set of numbers to use for the clock. I guess the most important thing is that my mother loved the idea  .

Yay, I finally got the pictures uploaded (well my husband did). So here is the scarf. There is a similar set of dragonflies at the other end of the scarf, but they are not visible now.


And here is a close up of one of the dragonflies. So I stencilled the pattern and then followed the outlines with something that might be a backstich (if there's such a stich ).


Off to plan the knitting project...

My purse. It's been finished and in use for two weeks now. I even got a choclate stain on it already  . It's comfortable and roomy. The strap is wide enough to make it light to carry even when I have an A4-folder in it or books.

I wasn't fully consentrating while making it so there are some mistakes and stuff, but I'm happy with the result anyway  .

It only took me four years to make this bag (from the original idea)...

I have two boxes (orange and green) I use to store deco booklets. The boxes were quite wobbly and after a year or so they started to look like they'd fall apart one day.  Then I have one box (violet) for miscellanious deco material that doesn't fit anywhere else. This box is an old box for chocolate. I wanted to make the two wobbly ones sturdier and to make all the boxes better looking so I decided to finally give decoupage a try.

I used bits and pieces I'd stored from deco making and other projects. Then I blotted some ink over the design.

I made this shirt for my sister. I had the idea from magazine, but the pattern was of wrong size and actually of wrong shape too. So I basically made the pattern myself. The shirt is a bit too big for me, but you get the idea.

I'm quite happy with the way it came out, even though there are some details I'd do differently the next time (like the collar).



The front of the shirt is made of two layers of fabric. The top layer covers the slits for breasts. Here you can see how the slits work. (And that is a shirt showing underneath, not my bra  )

Here are the fabrics I'm using. The top one I wove myself some years ago. (The second thing I've ever woven.)Even then I thought I'd use it to make a purse one day. Then there's the lining and the background is actually the corduroy fabric I'm using for the sides and strap.

Yesterday I cut my fabrics and on monday I'll try to sew the purse. I know I said I'd make many pockets and departements, but as I started thinking about it, I don't need them anymore. So there'll be only one pocket inside the purse. Makes my life a lot easier  .