Summer Sandals

I got this idea from Imagine, quite honestly, but their directions sort of stink. Ergo! Here are my new shiny directions! They're probably not any better, but they're not any better with pictures!

Sandal making isn't an exact science, which will be awesome for some of you and not so much awesome for others. Also, this is a wonderful way to use up extra ribbon. You'll need:

Foam -- For the sole.
Glue -- Something to hold the foam together. White glue probably won't work. I used tacky glue, myself.
Ribbon -- This is just a suggestion. Ribbon works best. You should probably try a few sandals with just straight up ribbon. After you get the hang of it, you can branch out to other materials, so long as they're very thin.
Scissors -- For cutting.
A doll -- You need a foot model.
Stiff paper
A pencil -- For tracing
Optional: beads

Put your doll's foot on the stiff paper and trace around it. Cut it out. This is now your pattern.

Now, trace the pattern onto the foam. For each pair of sandals you plan on making, you'll need four foot-shaped pieces of foam, so trace at least that many. Cut them out.

To measure how much ribbon you'll need, put one piece of foam on your doll's foot, then glue an end of ribbon to the bottom of the foam. (DO NOT GLUE THE RIBBON TO YOUR DOLL.) Wrap the ribbon around your doll's foot, and see how much length you'll need to get to the bottom of the shoe on the other side. (By the way, leave yourself a generous amount of ribbon on the bottom for gluing. It will hold better that way.)

Glue the second ribbon end down. Now, glue another foam piece to the bottom -- in effect, you'll cover the ribbon up and make a sandwich.

That's not hard. There's your sandal! Make another to be its mate, and make sure it dries before your doll tries it on.

Once you master this, you can get creative and use other materials -- just make sure they're thin. I tried to use some braided lanyard cord, and it was a BIG mess.

Another thing you can do is string beads on the sandals before you glue the end down. It makes for a really nice effect.

Like so:

All the sandals I made:

Close ups? Why sure!

Happy cobbling!

Back