Making Moccasins from a Kit

On Monday, Douglas and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary. We made an agreement before our first wedding anniversary that would would stick to the traditional gift list and try to make our gifts as much as possible. Last year I made him cotton pillows.

This year I had a lot of grand ideas. I considered only about a million things that would have been very hard to make. I researched how to stamp leather, how to sew leather, how to carve leather, etc. Nothing seemed easy, and I never seemed to have the time to start anything.

As our anniversary drew nearer, I was starting to panic. Then, on our road trip to Maryland, my mom mentioned to me that in “her day” they used to sell kits for making moccasins. That very night I was on Google looking for a kit. By the time I got home, this was waiting for me.

Inside the package are all of the pieces to make the moccasins as well as the instructions. Those were not as clear as I would have liked them to be, but I was able to figure things out by using common sense.

Crème tried to help, but she just ended up confusing me more.

Part of me was really disappointed that I was not making my gift from scratch. After all, I designed the pillows without a kit or even a pattern. I felt like I was cheating by using a kit. I wondered if it was justified for me to even write about it on my blog. Then, I decided to get over it and write about it anyway, especially when my first attempt started badly.

The second try did not look much better. I thought that the leather would just pucker nicely on its own. The problem is the that the holes in the top piece as much closer together. It is really difficult to “sew” the two parts together in a way that looks good. I was also disappointed that the lace was not made of leather.

After spending a couple of hours working and then pulling out all of my labor, I decided to give up on perfection and settle for “good enough”. That seems to be the story of my life. It was also a concept that alluded me at a young age. As I get older I am a little more willing to accept less than perfect. A little.

Next I moved on to the heel. These have the ability to work for two different shoe sizes. You just have to lace different holes. I was not sure which holes to use. I just picked some and started threading the laces through them. I did not cut anything until Douglas had tried them on. That way I was still able to adjust them should he want me to.

At this point the leather is pretty much shaped as a shoe. The last part is to add another piece of leather across the top to make it look more finished.

This stage was really frustrating as well. The instructions said to leave a six-inch piece of lace on one side before starting to thread the rest through the holes. I ended up with a much longer piece on the other side. Arg!

I shortened that side and started pulling the lace back through all of the holes to lengthen the other side. Then, that side was much longer. Double ARG!

After another half hour of fiddling around with it, I decided that once again it was “good enough”. That is going to be my mantra from now on.

The second shoe went a little faster than the first. I was happy with the end result.

I went high end on the packaging. I will never wrap a present for Douglas because he spends more time opening it than I take to wrap it in the first place. He is determined to open every gift without tearing the wrapping paper at all. It can be quite frustrating to watch him unwrap presents.

Crème made sure that I picked the right bag. Not only does Douglas love beer, but this bag is from our honeymoon visit to the Guinness factory in Dublin. I covered the card in stickers from the leftover Hershey kisses from our wedding.

The best part is that Douglas was happy with them.

Maybe next time I can figure out how to make some with toes.

Happy Homemaking!