It’s getting cold up here in Alaska and my son is still too small for winter boots, but he’s outgrown his cute little warm booties. I’ve been collecting thrift store cashmere sweaters for a while now with no real plan for them. I washed and dried them several times to felt them up a bit and strengthen the fabric and I decided a pair of sock-like booties would be just right for winter.

I did a little Google searching but couldn’t find a pattern I was satisfied with, so I made one. You can access it here.

These booties were pretty simple to make and only took me about 45 minutes. When printing off the pattern be sure your printer doesn’t scale it down. I had to go to my settings and change the scale to 100% and it printed off just fine. If you have troubles, please let me know.

What you’ll need:

Free Alaska Knit Nat Bootie Pattern

One cashmere sweater you’re willing to cut up (or any old sweater for that matter)

Two 2-inch pieces of narrow elastic

Sewing machine

Pins

Fabric scissors

Stretchy sewing machine needle (not required, but really helpful)

1. Using the pattern, cut the body of the bootie along the bottom of the sweater so the ribbing will become the cuff of the bootie. You’ll be cutting four pieces out, but you can cut through the front and back of the sweater at one time. Cut two soles from the sweater being sure to lay the pattern on a fold.

2. Lay the body of the booties right sides together. Pin and sew up the back of the bootie using 1/4-inch seam allowances.

3. Trim the seam toward the top so no raw edges stick up. Lay the bootie out flat, wrong side up and place the 2-inch piece of elastic a few inches from the top (I just used the end of the ribbing as a guide). Stretch the elastic across the back to see where you should start sewing. Sew along the length of elastic, stretching it as you go. This will ripple the bootie in the back so hopefully they will stay on better. You could skip the elastic altogether and sew laces to the back when you are finished.

4. With right sides together, pin and sew along the front of the bootie. The only raw edge remaining should be the bottom of the bootie.

5. Pin the sole wrong-side out around the edges of the bootie. Make sure the wider part of the sole is at the front and the narrower part is in the back. It seems like a no-brainer, but why do you think the booties in the photo look so pointy? Sew around. I didn’t trim because I figured the extra bulk inside would add some more warmth.

6. Turn right-side out. Pop onto cute baby feet. This is where you could add a long lace to the back and wrap it around the bootie and tie if you don’t want to use elastic. I might even crochet a long chain and put pom-poms on the ends.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this pattern, as I’m not used to writing my own patterns.