Over the weekend I made a pair of baby booties for a friend who is due in about a month.  I hand stitched them entirely because they are small enough sewing on a machine would have been problematic, and I knew they would go fairly quickly.  Below is a free Viking baby bootie pattern if you want to make a pair of your own.

The outer is wool felt.  The lining is red linen.  All the stitching is done in pearl cotton.  The ties are pearl cotton finger loop braid, anchored into the booties.

I drew inspiration for the pattern from Viking shoe patterns from the 9th century to the 11th century.  I did greatly simplify the pattern since they are tiny, and are just for warmth, not walking, running, fighting, and working in.  The most versatile source for medieval shoe patterns that I have found so far is Footwear of the Middle Ages.

The sole of the booties I made are left and right footed, but it caused some irregularities and assembly problems at the front of the foot when combined with the viking shoe upper shape.  For that reason, and also to ease construction for people using this pattern, I altered the sole of the pattern as shown below so that it does not have a left or right side.  That means if you are using this pattern to make your own booties, you don’t have to worry about left-right orientation of the sole when attaching to the upper.

Sew the sole to the upper first, starting at point “A”, which is the point at the back of the heel.  After the sole is completely attached, stitch together the center front of the upper, starting at the sole.  When you are about half-way to the tie tab, tie it off and leave the rest of the shoe open to the top.