Easy Garter Stitch Booties

On May 16, 2025 56 0

Oh, those tiny, soft baby booties! Ever looked at a pair like the sweet light blue ones in the picture and just dreamed of making them yourself? Well, get ready for some happy news – you totally can! We’re so excited to guide you, step by step, as we knit up these adorable garter stitch booties. They’re that lovely light blue you see, with a squishy, huggable texture that’s just perfect for keeping little toes cozy.

What You’ll Need to Get Started

Before we dive in, let’s gather our supplies. For these booties, which are designed to be soft and cozy:

🧶 Yarn: About 50 grams of a soft, DK or worsted weight yarn. A wool or acrylic blend works wonderfully.
🥢 Knitting Needles: Size 4.0mm (US 6) or 4.5mm (US 7) knitting needles, or the size recommended on your yarn label to achieve a nice fabric.
✂️ Scissors: For snipping yarn.
🧵 Tapestry Needle: A blunt-tipped needle with a large eye, essential for sewing seams and weaving in those yarn ends.

Understanding the Basics

Let’s quickly go over the techniques we’ll be using. These booties are made primarily with the simplest stitch there is!

Slip Knot: This is how you’ll make the first loop on your needle.
Casting On: This is the process of getting the initial stitches onto your needle to begin knitting. We’ll aim for a simple method.
Knit Stitch (k): The foundational stitch of knitting! We’ll explain exactly how to form this stitch.
Garter Stitch: This is the beautiful, bumpy, and stretchy fabric you see on the booties. You achieve this texture by knitting every single row. No purling required for this project!
Slipping Stitches onto a Holder: Sometimes, you need to temporarily rest some stitches while you work on another part. Waste yarn or a proper stitch holder works perfectly.
Rejoining Yarn: When you need to start knitting with yarn again after cutting it or for a new section.
Picking Up and Knitting Stitches (pu&k): This technique allows you to add new stitches along an existing edge of your knitting. It sounds trickier than it is! We’ll guide you.
Binding Off (or Casting Off): This is how you secure your stitches when your piece is finished, taking it off the needles.
Seaming: Using your tapestry needle to neatly sew the flat knitted piece into a three-dimensional bootie.

A Note on Size: This pattern will guide you to make booties suitable for a baby around 0-3 months. Little feet grow fast, and a handmade touch is always appreciated!

Let’s Knit Some Booties! (Make Two)

These booties are knitted flat in one piece, starting from the cuff and working downwards. Then, a little bit of simple sewing transforms it into a bootie.

Step 1: Casting On for the Cuff

Make a slip knot and place it on one of your knitting needles. This is your first stitch.
Cast on 35 more stitches. You should have a total of 36 stitches on your needle.
- Beginner Tip for Casting On (Thumb Method): Loop the yarn around your thumb, insert the needle into this loop, catch the working yarn with the needle tip, and pull it through the loop on your thumb, letting the thumb loop slip onto the needle as a new stitch. Repeat until you have 36 stitches.

Step 2: Knitting the Cuff

Now, we’ll work in Garter Stitch. This means you knit every stitch of every row.
Row 1: Knit all 36 stitches.
Row 2: Knit all 36 stitches.
Repeat these two rows until the cuff section measures about 1 inch (2.5 cm) from the cast-on edge. This will be about 5-7 garter ridges (a garter ridge is formed by two rows of knitting). This section is the cuff of the bootie.

Step 3: Forming the Instep (Top of Foot)

This is where we shape the top part of the bootie. We’ll work on the central stitches only for a bit.

Next Row (Right Side):
- Knit the first 12 stitches. Slip these 12 stitches onto a piece of waste yarn or a stitch holder – just let them hang out for now.
- Knit the next 12 stitches. These 12 stitches will form the instep.
- Slip the remaining 12 stitches onto another piece of waste yarn or a stitch holder.
You now have only 12 stitches on your working needle (the central ones).
Continue working in Garter Stitch (knitting every row) only on these 12 central stitches.
Keep knitting these 12 stitches back and forth until this “instep flap” measures about 1.5 – 2 inches (4-5 cm) long, or until it looks like it would comfortably cover the top of a tiny foot.
Do not bind off these 12 stitches. Cut your yarn, leaving about a 6-inch tail (you can tuck this in later or use it for a tiny bit of seaming if needed, though we’ll primarily use a new strand for main seaming).

Step 4: Knitting the Sides and Preparing for the Sole

Now we’ll bring all the parts together to build the main body of the bootie.

Go back to the first set of 12 stitches you put on a holder. Carefully slip them back onto one of your empty knitting needles, ready to knit.
Rejoin your yarn: Take the end of your yarn ball (or a new strand if you prefer), leave a 6-inch tail, and simply start knitting the first stitch with it, holding the tail at the back for the first few stitches to secure it.
Knit across these 12 stitches.
Pick up and knit stitches along the side of the instep flap:
- Now, you’re going to add stitches along one side edge of the 12-stitch instep flap you just made.
- Beginner Tip for Picking Up Stitches: With your right-hand needle holding the 12 stitches you just knitted, look at the side edge of the instep flap. You’ll see little “bumps” or loops from the garter stitch. Insert your right needle from front to back under one of these edge loops (usually one stitch in from the very edge for a neat finish), wrap the yarn around your needle as if to knit, and pull a new loop through to your right needle. That’s one picked-up stitch!
- Evenly pick up and knit 8 stitches along this first side of the instep flap. (It might be one stitch for each garter ridge, or slightly more or less depending on your tension – aim for a flat, not puckered, edge).
Knit across the 12 live stitches at the end of the instep flap (the ones you left on the needle without binding off).
Pick up and knit stitches along the other side of the instep flap: Evenly pick up and knit 8 stitches along the second side of the instep flap, just like you did on the first side.
Finally, slip the last 12 stitches from their holder onto your left-hand needle and knit across them.
You should now have all the stitches on one needle: 12 (side) + 8 (picked up) + 12 (instep top) + 8 (picked up) + 12 (other side) = 52 stitches.

Step 5: Knitting the Foot Sides and Sole Section

Continue working in Garter Stitch (knitting every row) on all 52 stitches.
Keep knitting until this section below the picked-up stitches measures about 1 inch to 1.25 inches (2.5 – 3 cm). This part forms the sides of the foot and will become the sole. The exact depth will determine how deep the bootie is.

Step 6: Binding Off

It’s time to take your knitting off the needles!
- Beginner Tip for Binding Off: Knit the first two stitches. Then, insert your left needle tip into the first stitch you knitted (the one further to the right on your right needle), and lift it up and over the second stitch and completely off the needle. One stitch bound off! Knit one more stitch. You now have two stitches on your right needle again. Repeat the lifting-over process. Continue this – knit one, lift one over – until only one loop remains. Cut your yarn, leaving an 8-10 inch tail, and pull this tail through the last loop to secure it.
You now have a wonderfully quirky flat piece of knitting! It doesn’t look like a bootie yet, but the magic is about to happen.

Step 7: Assembling the Bootie

This is where your flat piece transforms! Thread the long tail from binding off (or a new piece of yarn) onto your tapestry needle.

Fold the bootie: With the “right side” (the bumpy garter stitch side you want showing on the outside) facing inwards for now (you’ll turn it out later), fold the sole section (the last wider part you knitted after picking up stitches) in half lengthwise, so the bind-off edges meet.
Sew the sole seam: Starting at the toe end of this folded sole section, sew the two edges together. You can use a mattress stitch for a neat, almost invisible seam in garter stitch, or a simple whip stitch.
- Mattress Stitch for Garter Edge: With right sides facing you, align the edges. Pick up the bar between the first and second stitch on one edge, then the corresponding bar on the other edge. Continue alternating. For garter stitch, you’re essentially sewing the “smiles” and “frowns” of the garter bumps together.
- Whip Stitch: Simply pass your needle through both layers of fabric from one side to the other, making small, even stitches along the edge. Sew along this edge until you reach what will be the bottom of the heel.
Sew the center back seam: Now, continue sewing upwards from the heel, joining the original cast-on edges of the cuff section together. This forms the back of the bootie. Secure your yarn end by weaving it in on the inside.
Turn the bootie right side out. Look at that! It’s a bootie! The simple seaming gives the toe its soft, rounded shape.

Step 8: Making the Tie

The booties in the image have a simple yarn tie.

Take a length of your yarn, about 15-20 inches long. You can use a single strand, or for a slightly thicker tie, hold two strands together.
Twisted Cord (Super Easy!):
- Fold the yarn in half. Ask a friend to hold one end (the two loose ends) or hook it over a doorknob.
- You hold the looped end. Twist the looped end continuously in one direction until the yarn is tightly twisted.
- Keeping it taut, bring your end (the loop) towards the other end your friend is holding. The yarn will magically twist back on itself, forming a neat cord! Knot the ends together.
Carefully thread this cord through the garter stitch bumps around the ankle area of the bootie, just below the main cuff section, as seen in the image. A tapestry needle can help you weave it in and out.
Tie in a gentle bow.

Repeat all steps to make the second bootie!

Caring for Your Hand-Knitted Booties

Wash gently by hand in cool water with a mild detergent, reshape, and lay flat to dry. This will keep them looking lovely.

You’ve Done It!

Take a moment to admire your handiwork. You’ve taken yarn and needles and brought into being a beautiful, functional pair of baby booties. There’s a special warmth in handmade items, and these little booties are sure to be treasured.

We’d absolutely love to see the booties you make! Feel free to share pictures of your finished pieces. Happy knitting, and may your yarn always be tangle-free!