Flintstone Feet
I made my first pair of shoes!
I stumbled across an Espadrille Kit by A Happy Stitch a few years back and I had shoe making on my list of creative things to do. Fast forward to 2020 when leather bag maker extraordinaire, Treasure of Nikki & Mallory collabed with A Happy Stitch to create a hair-on leather sandal espadrille tutorial. Unfortunately, this tutorial was only available for a limited time in A Happy Stitch Etsy shop. If I didn’t have the push a few years back, I definitely got the push now!
Supplies
Off to purchase leather scraps! There are a few items you will need outside of an espadrille kit and the Nikki & Mallory sandal tutorial. I decided to stick with hair on leather and I found several options on Etsy. Here’s what you will need:
leather scraps (if using hair-on leather beware it is messy and you will have hair everywhere)
lightweight leather for fusing
4mm leather cord 10-11 yards
Edge Kote (I used brown)
Leather Cement Glue
Upholstery thread
Leather needle for your sewing machine or you can choose to hand stitch loops in place.
Edge Kote applied on the left piece vs. No Edge Kote applied on the right piece
I used pink leather scraps from my stash for my fusing and then cut out all the required pieces for the sandals (rotary cutter highly recommended). The leather cement glue is used to glue the fusing (lightweight leather) to the inside of the back pattern piece for extra stability. The Edge Kote is applied to the edges of all your leather pieces. Once you have glued, sewn all the loops on, and finished your edges with edge kote, you’re now ready for the fun part…stitching your sandals together!
The espadrille kit provides all the items you will need like needles, yarn, and wax. You’re going to want to pin your fabric pieces onto the shoe sole and fit to your liking. I have pretty long toes so I made those adjustments to position the top sandle pieces so my toes were comfy. Now for the blanket stitch! I had no idea what this stitch was, really. Once I got the hang of this stitch it was on and poppin and then I purchased 2 more espadrille kits lol. Yes they are addictive y’all. After you’ve completely sewn down your pattern pieces to the soles the last thing to do is measure out your straps and you’re all done.
Overall, I absolutely loved creating my Flintstone Feet. I would’ve never thought that I would be making shoes but here I am. Have you tried shoemaking? Or even made a pair of espadrilles? I’d love to know your thoughts and experiences.