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Altered Shoes

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shoes01I’ve been seeing altered shoes around recently including from a woman here in Oakland who does not have a web site apparently. How can that be? websites are pretty much free at this point.

Hippy of Doom on Etsy has some nice altered shoes. I love these hummingbird shoes.

shoesbookThere is also an entire book about altering shoes and I bet it has great tips on the kinds of paint to use, etc. The book is called Altered Shoes: A Step-By-Step Guide To Making Your Footwear Fabulous and was written by Marty Stevens-Heebner. Marty looks very interesting and is, I think, the creator if ReBagz, a line of handbags made from upcycled materials. you can read about them here.

I’m shocked that there is not an altered shoes flickr group! I have a few altered shoes stories from recently myself, although, does it count if the altering was done my my most excellent local cobbler?

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Colorful Christmas Tree Cross Stitch Patterns

There’s no rule that says Christmas trees in real life have to be green, and there’s no rule in cross stitch that Christmas trees have to be green, either. While I love a good traditional looking tree (in reality or in cross stitch) there are lots of fun other choices, which we’ll explore here.

Looking for more Christmas tree cross stitch patterns? Check out this post from last year.

I am going to start with a traditional tree, but this one has a lot of color thanks to the lights and other decorations on it. This one is form xCountingtheStarsx, and it uses 20 colors. Worked on 16 count fabric it comes out to about 5.6 by 9.25 inches, or 14.2 by 23.5 cm, with a stitch count of 90 by 148.

These fun designs from Catholic Sprouts have traditional tree shapes but are filled with fun patterns and colors. These would be fun to stitch as a set or you can make each of them and give them as gifts to different people or use as holiday cards.

The Christmas tree shape is a little less literal in this swooping design from Well Stitches. I like this one because it only uses one color so it’s great for beginners, but it still looks dramatic. It is 109 by 155 stitches, which comes out to 7.99 by 11.07 inches, or 19.78 by 28.12 cm on 14 count fabric (dimensions for other counts are also included if you want to make it smaller).

And if you want to go for all color, check out the Merry and Bright Christmas tree cross stitch pattern from Tapestry Barn. This pretty skinny tree is surrounded by multicolored snowflakes. The designs on the tree remind me of knitting patterns. And even though it’s lots of colors, it’s only worked with whole stitches and no back stitching. It looks lovely on dark fabric! The piece measures about 7 by 7 inches, or 18 by 18 cm, on 14 count fabric.