There's been very little sewing going on here lately but with a surprise free afternoon and good weather finally making an appearance this seemed like the perfect time to break out my Espadrille making supplies and try something new. Exactly a year ago I bought everything I'd need from
Fabric Depot with dreams of a closet full of adorable shoes - then nothing. Story of my life;-)
After a quick shop thru my stash and closet I decided to start with this
Midnight metallic Essex linen paired with Hot Pink Add It Up by Cotton + Steel. There are only 2 easy to cut out shapes plus the interfacing so it's a quick and easy project to get all your pieces assembled. I did notice some of the
tutorials online mention needing to add the seam allowance to the templates but the Dritz templates I used include the seam allowance.
I did a crazy amount of pinning to work in all the ease but once that was done the actual hand sewing was really easy.
It's not too bad stitching thru the soles because of the rope braid but the finger grips definitely help with pulling the eye and thick thread thru the fabric.
Nancy's Notions has a great video on the whole process with a good demo of how to do the ladder stitch. You can't really see it here but I basted a 1/4" around the bottom edge of the fabric form and used that line to keep my stitch height uniform.
Ta-dah! I love how these came out but I do have some fit issues to work out before I start my next pair.
Lessons learned:
- I feel like the linen/quilting cotton combo is a bit flimsy. Next time I'll add interfacing to the linen in addition to the stabilizer on the lining.
- I definitely was a bit scant on my 3/8" seam allowance which means my pieces are a bit too large. I'm going to try using a 1/2" seam allowance next time. I'm pretty sure these will stretch so I want them to be snug to start.
- The heel pieces seemed way too wide where they attach to the toe so I tapered the top edge.
- Make the first shoe completely before starting the second. That way you won't have to redo both shoes to adjust your fit.
Any suggestions on a good way to temporarily attach the pieces to the sole? You can't really get your foot in and out to check the fit when everything is pinned. I'm already planning my next (several) pair!
