Headed to Hawaii in less than a week and decided that I wanted a new pair of sandals for the trip. This was a three night project start to finish.
The foundation pattern came from Rachel Corry‘s Sandalmaking Workshop book. I started with the scrap leather I use for practicing stamp patterns and kind of ran with it from there. I went with a theme similar to my Upcycled Knitted Leather Boots with lots of flowers cut from scrap leather. The flowers were attached with metal studs, and I added a lot of bedazzle jewels for good measure.
I added lining to the uppers (even though the pattern didn’t call for it) because the sandals are meant to be worn in the sun and I didn’t want to wind up burn dots on the top of my feet. The uppers and lining were glued together with Aqualim before stitching them together.
I used a linotype-carving knife to add traction to the bottom of the soles. The mid-soles are made from run-of-the-mill bulletin board cork board I had lying around from another project. Overall, everything came together pretty smoothly.
Don’t use a gold leather marking pen anywhere it would be visible after the shoe is completed. That stuff is nearly impossible to clean off of textured leather.
#VALUABLELESSONLEARNED
Postscript: The shoes worked pretty well! (Defined as did not fall apart when I wore them on vacation.) They fitted nicely, although are not the best walking shoes. Definitely want to build some arch support into the next pair.
Jenn Likes to Make Things 