Making Moccasins with Mom: A New Twist on Back to School Shoe Shopping

It's a familiar story. Fall is here, teachers are readying their classrooms for new faces, and families are preparing for the approaching school year. Backpacks are being stocked with freshly-sharpened pencils, folders are being personalized with bright stickers, and closets and drawers are being gutted and appraised to find the gaps left by the growth, wear, and forgetfulness of last year. Parents round up scattered shoes, long-forgotten in the barefoot/flip-flop days of summer... only to discover that the heat seems to have shrunk them all to a fraction of the size of the "little" feet they once protected. Time is short... what's a parent to do?

For most families, this yearly growth spurt is solved by a quick (hopefully!) trip to the store. The Salcido family, however, takes a different approach. When her 6-year-old daughter Olympia needed new classroom shoes for Kindergarten, Soft Star Co-Owner Tricia Salcido brought her into the workshop to design herself a pair of moccasins. Once the hard work of selecting leather colors was finished (whew!) Trish and Ollie teamed up to make the vibrant vision a reality (with a little help from the Elves). Ollie was able to follow her moccasins all the way from her mind to her feet, and we thought we'd share her journey with you as well!

Making Moccasins with Mom: A New Twist on Back to School Shoe Shopping

First step: Clicking out the leather with Keita.

Next comes glue and elastic prep with Elf Liz.

Time to put it all together...uh-oh, more decisions to make! Once Ollie's thread color is picked, Katie demonstrates how to shape these leather pieces into something that looks a bit like a shoe.