Crocodots!

I bought this fabulous hat at a store called The Spotted Goose on my last trip to Cincinnati. Jo immediately asked if we could make one just like it for her. I happen to own a copy of The Saturday Night Hat, but I've only made fabric hats from the book - nothing felted. Yet. In the meantime I thought we could be inspired by my new hat and make some snazzy dots for Jo's crocs.

Here's how we did it. You'll need some felt, 3/8" snap fasteners (available at any fabric store), a hammer, and a thread spool. I hear there's a tool that can replace the thread spool, but I don't have that and the snap police haven't come after me yet.

Cut out three circles of felt. The big yellow one is the size of a quarter. The two smaller ones are the size of a dime.

Each half of the snap pair uses two pieces - the end with the points goes on the right side of the fabric and holds the male or female snap bit in place. Center this on the smaller yellow circle.

Flip it over and make sure the points are poking through.

Lay it down on a bit of scrap felt (for cushion) and lay the female half of the snap over it. The yellow felt circle will be sandwiched between the two halves of the snap.

Place a thread spool over the whole thing and whack it with a hammer to join the two snap pieces. You could use a small bit of wood but the spool is nice when you're attaching the male end because you can center the hole in the spool over the male . . . um . . . part so you don't smash it flat when you hammer. Ouch!

Congratulations - you just made the inside part of your crocodot. Now for the pretty top half.

Basically, you'll do everything you did for the first part, except instead of sandwiching one circle of felt between the two snap pieces, you'll use two stacked circles of felt. And you'll use the male half of the snap.

Now put the small yellow circle inside the shoe and hold the snap part up to one of the holes in the shoe. Snap the pretty yellow and orange dots to the bit inside the shoe. This will take some work because crocs are pretty fat, but it will work. See?

And voila! Cute little crocodots to jazz up your crocs! These are just made out of cheap craft felt and I'm not sure how they'll hold up to weather, playground sand, etc. But I love the look of them and I want to make more. Next I'll try vinylizing (is that a word?) some fabric and making the outer dots out of that. I'll keep nice soft felt on the inside, though.