Sandals--Fourth Finish 4th Quarter Finish-A-Long 2018

Goal #18--stitch four pair of sandals

My friend Martha, had a shoebox full of parts for infant sandals. Goal number 18 on my 4th Quarter list was to stitch four pairs. The box contained: gripper material for the sole; cute cotton fabrics for the sole and upper part of the sandal;  binding fabrics for the finish; batting cut to size for the sole; a package of buttons; some circles she planned to use to embellish the sandals; some uppers stitched together; some parts cut out/pinned together; some sandals needing hand stitching and one finished pair! She also had made a pincushion out of a single sandal which was cute.

Last month, I looked through the box and decided for the first few pairs that I make, I should cut some out and use some of her partially sewn pairs as a storyboard of the process. I rummaged through my scrap batting box and found a small piece of polyester batting which is what she used for "cushion" in this project and cut out all the soles and uppers that I could squeeze out of the batting scrap.

The supplies and steps for the project

I also had a scrap from a skirt that I thought would make a
cute sandal so I cut two pair of soles out of the scrap. The scrap wasn't big enough to cut an upper. I found fabric to use as the upper and the lining and cut those out as well. In the end, I "readied" supplies for six pairs of sandals.

Step 1: All the parts are cut out and ready to be stitched. The finished sandal is about six inches long and about three inches wide. There is an outer and lining fabric and batting for the upper. There is outer fabric, batting, lining and gripper fabric for the sole. There are 12 fabric parts for this project!

Step 2: Stitching the batting to the gripper fabric and stitching the upper together.

Step 3: Stitching the outer fabric to the sole. It is also clipping, trimming, turning and top stitching the upper.

Step 4: Pinning the upper to the sole and machine stitching the binding to the gripper side of the sole. I learned it is important to sew slowly to avoid tucks. The pattern called for either binding cut 1 3/4 inches wide or to purchase extra wide double fold bias tape. From my grandmother's stash, I had some double fold bias tape in several colors. A couple packages were extra wide; but, the majority of the packages were narrower. I decided to see what the narrower tape would look like. In the end, I decided that I liked the look of the narrower bias tape so I planned to use that in future sandals as much as possible! Any time that I can use my grandmother's buttons or other notions from her stash, I do. She was a giving person and a way that I can share her spirit with others.

Step 5: Hand stitching the binding hand so the sandal is ready for embellishment.

Finished slippers--too stinking cute!

Step 6: Martha's finished sample. The embellishment that she made came from a circle that she cut with pinking shears, folded to resemble a flower and held in place with a button. What a cute finish for a girl sandal! Boy sandals don't need embellishment. I used buttons from my grandmothers button box to hold the flower embellishments in place.

In the six pair that I stitched, two were "girlish", two were "boyish" and two were neutral. I barely made a dent in the supplies in the shoe box! Another month, I will make more pairs. For now, I've dabbled enough with this project. The plan for these is to donate them to the Mt. Hood Guild's bazaar which will be held at their 2019 fall quilt show. If they don't sell, I have another location for them in mind. Both places, Martha would have approved.

The pair that I used as my sample were priced at $10. Martha sewed fast so perhaps, she could turn out a pair of sandals in under an hour. I figure it took me about three and a half hours to stitch a sandal. I don't think that she was able to make back her investment in her supplies or be paid for her time. Although, like me, she probably thought that they were cute and made some to give away. She may have decided to make a few more to sell just to use up the supplies that she had accumulated for the project. Hm m m m. . . . I wonder how long it will take me to get to the bottom of her box and how many pair of sandals are really in there! Time will tell!

This is my fourth finish for the 4th Quarter Finish-A-Long and the second goal for the month of November! As far as fabric goes. . .I used about an eighth of a yard of fabric from the stash. When I count the 1/8 yard of stash that I used for the Christmas stocking ornaments, I've used a quarter yard of fabric. I've now used 38 1/2 yards of fabric from my stash. I've 11 1/2 yards of fabric to go to meet my goal of using 50 yards from my stash this year.