Red Wooden Shoes: A Keepsake

Unfortunately,this summer I have to say goodbye to an awesome co worker and friend who has decided to move out of state to be closer to her family. When she told me she was moving, I panicked! Not because I will miss her (which I will, very much!) or because she was the first person that I worked with when I stated over six years ago and I love working with her, or because she brings a fabulous energy to a room like no one else can or even because she has a magical way of calming me down when I am freaking out about a program or time frames and I need that! (that is another post for another day!!). No, my adrenalin rush was because I remembered that several years ago when her father passed away, she gave me a few articles of his favorite clothing to make some sort of keepsake for her to treasure! Oh My! I recall when she gave them to me. I really wanted to do this wonderful thing for her, but I had just taught myself how to sew and my skills were shaky at best! How could I be trusted with such preciousness? I tucked the clothing away in my fabric box and worried for awhile about what I would make and then time just slipped away into years! Her announcement of the move sent me straight to my fabric box to retrieve the clothes to give back to her. I got them out and decided to refold them and put them in a fresh bag and then something happened. I started to look at them with new eyes! As soon as I took the pressure off of myself, I could see the possibilities!

I began at once. I cut squares about 9"x9" from the fabric using a square book that I had as a template. After I cut as many squares as I could get out of each article of clothing, I used graph paper to get a feel for the design possibilities and I chose the one that I thought was most pleasing to the eye. I then laid the fabric squares out side by side in the chosen arrangement and began sewing squares together into rows and then connected the rows together. I always brought the sewn pieces back to the laid out arrangement to eliminate any confusion. I saved all the parts that I thought were important~ stains, paint splatters, pockets, trims, frayed edges, buttons etc. I embellished all the squares before connecting the squares together. Finally I just put a flannel back on it and tied off each corner of the squares with embroidery thread ( all six strands) to hold the back and front together!

Years of procrastination lead to four days of joyful sewing from beginning to end!