Winter Warmers: Footies

With due apologies to those suffering in Northern Hemisphere heat waves, it's freaking cold down under and my feet are suffering. So, I decided to make some "footies" out of merino. I bought a 5 pack of these foot cover things from a big box store and they are too big, and not as cotton as they say they are, and I feel I could do better.

The commercial ones. No they don't change colour on my feet, I was wearing odd ones!

Anyway, I bought some merino, although I could easily make these from offcuts or even an old merino top, I just don't have any here at work. And I made a pattern. It looks like this:

It's really easy to draw your own. the one tricky bit is how stretchy your fabric is - mine is typical one way stretch and that goes around the foot so this is what I did:
Draw a rectangle. The long side is the length of your foot minus 2cm. The width is the half of 75-80% of the measurement around the widest part of your foot - mine is 25cm so I made may pattern 10cm. (I have huge feet so don't be alarmed if your numbers seem much smaller - they are!)
Next, I measured the back of my heel from the ground to how high I wanted it to be plus a bit more, it came to 8cm. Mark that on one short end of your rectangle.
Now draw a curved line that goes down a bit then up at a bit past half way - like mine.
That's it! Put a Fold arrow on the long straight side as a reminder, and cut two out of your fabric.

 My merino has a backing on it which is lighter, so easier to see in photos. That's why I chose it, besides it is raspberry pink so YAY!

Now sew the short sides together like this - you could overlock but I"ve just done two rows of zigzag on top of each other.

Turn it so the seam is centred like this, and mark a curve at the same end - this is for your toes.

Sew and then trim your marked curve.

I cut a piece of fold over picot elastic slightly shorter than the curved top edge of my footie, and mark the centre with a pin. Pin this onto the spot where the seam is and attach the elastic, stretching as you go, with a zigzag. I find in these little jobs I don't have to pin, and the fabric stays in the fold over fairly well.

This is what I ended up with. 

Now fold the short end like this and sew through both layers including the elastic.

Squash the heel so the seam is centred like this, and sew across the triangle like shown. Not too much, just a little bit to get rid of a point at the bottom of your heel.

Snip the wee triangle off like this. And that is IT! Turn it right side out and:

Voila! One footie! No seams on the sole to be irritating either. And here they are on my undainty feet:

They are SO much nicer than the bought ones. Top Tip: wear these over tights, pantihose or knee highs and they are far warmer, and the under layer stops them slipping down at all. Perfect for inside boots too if you want a warm boost without socks showing!
And all for less than $1. :)

Last thing - here is a compare between mine and the bought one. The bought ones are far too long for me, but the fabric is two way stretch and mine isn't. If you try this with a two way, make is smaller - you could easily try it on once the elastic is on and pin the heel.