It really is winter here now -it’s been snowing and cold for the past week. It has been a rough transition because one day it was warm enough to rake leave in a t-shirt and then the next day I was wearing snow pants to walk the dog. Shoulder-season isn’t my favorite but I’ve been working on a few things to make the transition a little easier. It’s been a busy month so I haven’t had as much time to work on my projects as I would have liked but I did finish the first one last weekend and I’m excited to share it!
Fleecy Wellie Liners
In the spring I bought myself some Hunter Wellington boots (in a lovely grey color) and I have thoroughly enjoying them every time it rains. My biggest regret about Chicago is not bringing my wellies to keep my feet dry with all the rain we had.
I have been wanting to buy some liners for my boots so that I can wear them in winter (well, at least parts of winter here) but they have always been out of stock when I’ve been in the mood to buy them. They also cost about $50 so they aren’t exactly cheap. The other day I was admiring my leg warmers and had the idea that I could just make some liners for my boots. Originally I thought I would knit boot socks but that seemed to be a little more effort than I wanted. Clever Charlotte has a great pattern and post for fleece liners with knitted cuffs that seemed super easy to make so I set myself to making my own.
The Cuffs
I started with the knitted cuff since I could do that in bed while I listed to a podcast. I wanted to use the round loom so I didn’t end up using the knitting pattern from the liner instructions. Instead, I used the pattern for this Bumpy Headband from This Mama Knits on my 31 peg (purple) loom. I cast on using a chain cast on, then followed the pattern as best I could (it required a little fudging on the last stitch of each round because I was using an odd numbered loom). I did two sets of the pattern (rows 2 – 9) and then cast off with the super stretchy cast off method. With the chunky wool I used this gave me cuffs about 3″ long. I used wool from my wool stash so I don’t know exactly how much I used but it was certainly less than a skein.
The Sock
I bought about 1 m of baby blue fleece from the thrift store ($3) which was enough for the project with some left over (the pattern calls for 1/2 yard or about 1/2 m). I have size 10 feet so I printed out the biggest pattern and then transferred it to brown paper as suggested in the post.
The instructions in the post are very detailed and easy to follow so I won’t repeat the steps here. Once the socks were all sewn together I tried them in my boots to determine exactly how tall they should be and trimmed off a little excess. Then I pinned my knitted cuffs to the inside of the sock (I put the super stretchy bind off side as my stitched side) and used my machine to zig-zag stitch them together.
Then you just flip the knitted cuff to the right side of the sock and ta-da: boot liners!
One finished boot liner (the downside to my sewing room is the terrible lighting)
The baby blue liner isn’t what I would have chosen if I was buying the fabric at the store but for a total price of $3 for the pair, I’m happy with it. The liner doesn’t show when you are wearing the boot anyways.
Testing out the liners at the dog park
Fleece seems to be about $16/m which makes this project still significantly cheaper than buying liners even if you have to buy fabric and wool at full price. I just bought some beautiful teal wool on sale ($3/skein) and got an awesome deal on fleece ($5/m) so I have plans to make a second pair with a different patterned cuff.