June 12, 2012

Stretch Tabi

Today, I tried my hand at making stretch tabi. Recently, Saiya-chan of Oranda no Kitsuke posted a sewing pattern for making 25-25.5cm stretch tabi. You can download the pattern at her blog, here.

I have small feet, so the pattern is too big for me, but you can make adjustments as needed. My printer automatically shrinks printouts by adding margins, so when I printed the tabi pattern it was a perfect size for me!

Here are the finished tabi:

The pattern works nicely! This is the first time I wore stretch tabi, they are very comfortable. I thought that I would have to add a band of elastic in the opening of the ankle, but I did not need it. I think they next pair I make I will use two layers of fabric. These feel very light on my feet, I am used to wearing stiff cotton tabi. So I think using two layers of stretchy material will give more stability (and hopefully they will turn out less see-through).

I used a different fabric for the sole of the tabi. I used a cotton brocade with a diamond texture. I was hoping the texture would help the tabi grip better so that the tabi wouldn't be slippery, but it is still rather slippery in comparison to real tabi.

Here you can see the texture of the cotton fabric on the sole. I had hoped it would not slip so much, but I think it the best I could use for now.

Bonus: Matrix keeping my company while I sew!

Yay! Thanks to Saiya-chan for the pattern! I plan to make some more soon!

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