Getting ready for winter
Oct. 2nd, 2005 11:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
capri0mniWinters here have always been a bother for me because I can't put my own shoes on, so I've spent much of my winters barefoot (It's not as bad as it would've been, if I'd stayed in New York, certainly, but still). Every year, I've always told myself I'd find some way to sew "footies" to the bottoms of sweatpants, and every year, the time and season has gotten away from me.
I heard (or read somewhere online) that the more active the hurricane season, the colder the winter (oh joy!). And I heat my house with natural gas. Even before Katrina hit the Gulf of Mexico, I knew this year would be bad -- I just can't afford to kick the thermostat up to 75 F and leave it there. So this year, I'm actually doing something about it.
About ten years ago, I picked up the book The Indians of New Jersey: Dickon among the Lenapes, about an 18th century English boy who gets rescued and adopted by the Lenape. And it's chock full of information, including step-by-step instructions on how to make a pair of moccasins (or lenhok'sina), with illustrations. So I've had my eye and my mind on them for a while. Last month, when Dad was down for a visit, I bought a yard of buckskin-colored polyester fleece. When he came down again this last week, he measured my feet, and I used those numbers to come up with this pattern, based on the illustration in Dickon:
To make the lehoksin, you gather the fabric from the toe to the top of the instep by stitching as if you were half-lacing a shoe, and then pulling the stitches tight. Then you sew the rest of the upper, and the seam along the back of the heel with a simple overhand stitch. When you're done (if you're skilled enough) you should get shoes that are shaped something like the ones on this page:
NativeTech: Native American Varities of Moccasins: Lenape (the beading and porcupine quill embroidery is another matter).
By my calculations, I think I have enough fleece for two pair of lenhoksina. I'll spend some time practicing with scrap fabric (maybe even plastic shopping bags -- have enough of those!) before I commit myself to this pattern, though. I'm also planning on making some rag-tag footies for knocking around the house in, when I don't have to worry about not looking like a bag lady. Now that I have my foot measurements, I'm planning on making enough footies to last a week between laundry loads. I'm planning on cutting "foot pockets" from the legs of sweatpants whose elastic has died, and/or who are falling apart at the seams, and sewing them to the bottoms of sweatpants who have more useful life in them, and making them (and my fleece shoes) non-skid by painting the bottoms with glossy dimensional fabric paint.
So, if you don't see me online for a few days, you can imagine me sitting in a sunny corner, with needle and thread, like a spinster lady of old...
I heard (or read somewhere online) that the more active the hurricane season, the colder the winter (oh joy!). And I heat my house with natural gas. Even before Katrina hit the Gulf of Mexico, I knew this year would be bad -- I just can't afford to kick the thermostat up to 75 F and leave it there. So this year, I'm actually doing something about it.
About ten years ago, I picked up the book The Indians of New Jersey: Dickon among the Lenapes, about an 18th century English boy who gets rescued and adopted by the Lenape. And it's chock full of information, including step-by-step instructions on how to make a pair of moccasins (or lenhok'sina), with illustrations. So I've had my eye and my mind on them for a while. Last month, when Dad was down for a visit, I bought a yard of buckskin-colored polyester fleece. When he came down again this last week, he measured my feet, and I used those numbers to come up with this pattern, based on the illustration in Dickon:
To make the lehoksin, you gather the fabric from the toe to the top of the instep by stitching as if you were half-lacing a shoe, and then pulling the stitches tight. Then you sew the rest of the upper, and the seam along the back of the heel with a simple overhand stitch. When you're done (if you're skilled enough) you should get shoes that are shaped something like the ones on this page:
NativeTech: Native American Varities of Moccasins: Lenape (the beading and porcupine quill embroidery is another matter).
By my calculations, I think I have enough fleece for two pair of lenhoksina. I'll spend some time practicing with scrap fabric (maybe even plastic shopping bags -- have enough of those!) before I commit myself to this pattern, though. I'm also planning on making some rag-tag footies for knocking around the house in, when I don't have to worry about not looking like a bag lady. Now that I have my foot measurements, I'm planning on making enough footies to last a week between laundry loads. I'm planning on cutting "foot pockets" from the legs of sweatpants whose elastic has died, and/or who are falling apart at the seams, and sewing them to the bottoms of sweatpants who have more useful life in them, and making them (and my fleece shoes) non-skid by painting the bottoms with glossy dimensional fabric paint.
So, if you don't see me online for a few days, you can imagine me sitting in a sunny corner, with needle and thread, like a spinster lady of old...
