How to create your own pattern for baby shoes

My daughter has never really match standard sizes for shoes. When she was a baby I made her tons of cloth booties and mary janes. I learned how to draft my own pattern so that they fit her perfectly.
For this tutorial we will do mary janes shoes since those are the simplest. After you learn how to draft your pattern, head over to the tutorial to learn how to put it all together.

Here is what you need

A pair of shoe that fits well

Plain paper

Pencil

Lets start with the right side and you can repeat the process for the left.

Lay your shoe on plain paper and trace all the way around it, leaving about 1/4″ extra for seam allowance.

Pattern for your sole

Now for the top pattern of the shoe.

Remember to get your measurements up from your shoe to your paper, you will have to move your shoe. So you might want to make a on outline of the shoe so that you put it back on the same spot every time.

Measure from the tip of the shoe to where the center and then from the tip of the back to the bottom. Also measure from the bottom side of the shoe right before it curves out for both sides. You will want to extend your measurement about 1/4″ for seam allowance.Now the distance between B and C, we will call E and the distance between B and D, we will call F. See the image below.

Now you will take the measure measurement you got for E and mark a spot to your left starting from line C and the measurement you got for F and mark a spot from away from D. Also when you make come out 1/4″ for seam allowance like we have been doing all along. Note these measurements should all be the same number. See the two spots in orange below.

Now lets make the dots that you will need to connect to complete the top part of the shoe. First dot comes from the top of line A, second comes from the bottom of line A, third comes from the intersection of C and E, fourth comes from the intersection of F and D and lastly you have your two orange ones on the sides.

Now lets connect the dots! Again, come down 1/4″ for allowance. See diagram below on which ones connect to each other.

Your final top pattern will look like this:


Pattern for your top

For your straps, all you need to do is measure from one side of the of the middle of the shoe to the other and make it how wide you want it. Usually 2″ wide will work.

Pattern for your straps

And there you have it… all your pattern pieces. How head over to the tutorial and learn how to put it all together.

Remember the pattern pieces on this page is NOT SCALED so DO NOT print out here. This is only to show you how to create your own. I have one you can print out over on the tutorial page.

Pattern for your sole


Pattern for your top

Pattern for your straps

Take a look at the tutorial with a SCALED pattern on how to put this shoe together.