Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Shoes made from fiber


I always liked espadrilles, how they were made, what went into them in the making. A very long time ago I had some authentic espadrilles as well as ones made with cloth uppers sew together and whip stitched to the soles. The soles of those espadrilles were always of some kind of rope or twine, twisted around and around the insole of the foot and some kind of rubber substance was smeared into the spaces between the twine.

These "espadrilles" are courtesy of Emi Harrington. She has an Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Hectanooga. Her ravelry store: http://www.ravelry.com/stores/emi-harrington-designs has over 300 patterns that are simple even for the beginning crocheter and knitter. She also has a Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Hectanooga1/videos where she has many videos that, even just watching her, you can do a project and have it done in no time. She is very through in those videos, the longest video of any of them is about 9 minutes, most are about 6 minutes. It's because she edits her videos and doesn't waste time talking like most Youtube tutorial videos and  she cuts to the chase.

I found her crochet "espadrilles". The tan and white ones were done in one evening. Although with putting on the "soles" which she shows you how to make with flip flops, she uses yarn to sew them on. I'm sure that is for demonstration purposes only. For durability, I used an awl and poked holes all the way around the sole and use nylon fishing line and whip stitched it with a heavy darning needle around both the espadrilles and the sandals in brown and black. I am half way done with my "hippie" sandals done in 2 strands of solid and multicolored yarn held together. This time I did not sew the soles on but used a hot glue gun and attached the insole to the flip flop sole and used a button for the ankle strap. A hot glue gun is very durable and flexible and saves you from all that stitching. So durable is a hot glue gun's glue that I once used it in an emergency to fix a broken part of a spindle of a chair and it lasted for years! A little tweaking here and there and they will be done. :-)

Below are my pics of the espadrilles and the black sandals. The hippie sandals will be added in the next post.

Happy knitting and crocheting! Do visit Emi's site and watch her videos. :-) She is a very creative woman.

ETA: Finally finished with the hippie sandals. They have to be hippie sandals because they are multicolored. :-)
These are heavily modified versions of Emi's sandals pictured below and on her site. Come this winter, I plan to make to make some woolen, closed toe style of shoe. Really enjoy making the shoes!

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