Unexpectedly Stylish Spats in Knots

First of all, what are splats, you may be wondering? According to good old Wikipedia: “Spats were worn by men and, less commonly, by women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They fell out of frequent use during the 1920s. Made of white cloth, grey or brown felt material, spats buttoned around the ankle. Their intended practical purpose was to protect shoes and socks from mud or rain, but they also served as a feature of stylish dress in accordance with the fashions of the period.”

In current times, few wear spats unless you’re part of a marching band, perhaps, or some military ceremonial costume. In my case, I have this pair of white Doc Martens shoes that I thought would look cool with them.

So, I guess we start with how I planned out this project. I used construction paper to work out the size, shape and how it would fit. Specifically, fit my shoes, so it’s quite pointless to give actual dimensions since you’d wanna fit them to your own shoes.

This wasn’t too difficult and I was rather lucky to have estimated the size that would work out with the pattern I wanted to use for the knotted part of the project. So to better picture how it comes together I used some tape and a paperclip to hold it in shape.

My next step was to test the project with a sheet of felt to make sure it would be comfortable and actually wrap around my ankles and sit upon my shoes properly. Using the construction paper as a stencil, I cut out the felt.

Mind you I have to be careful to not let the pins get me, but this worked to make sure it was just what I wanted. Next is a look at the mock-up spat with my shoes. Now it should be more or less clear what I’m trying to achieve.

See what I mean by how it would look cool with these shoes? And in case you wanted to use the same pattern that I’m doing I’ve got you covered. For the floss I use I just had to double the pattern provided. If you use DMC or something else you may have to adjust accordingly.

Click on the above pattern for the PDF in better detail.

This is the video of the first Saturday livestream where I started knotting the fabric for this project. Each week, I’ll continue working on it till it’s complete. If you have questions just ask and I’ll do my best to help guide you.

This is where I left off after the first livestream. Tune in next week to follow my progress or check back to this post for updates!