Make your own and unique slippers

Funny, comfy, cozy, chic & stylish!

Whether you are a novice or expert seamstress, with or without sewing machine, slippers are a fun and easy project to tackle in one evening. They also make a great personalized gift.

Your first step in making slippers is to choose fabric. If you are looking for just the right expression of your personality, check out your local fabric store and wade through the bolts for the perfect swatch. If you are on a tighter budget, or just like to be green, consider up cycling a towel, bathrobe or other tatty piece of clothing.

The simplest type of slipper to make is an open toed slip on. For this style slipper, you will need a half a yard of fabric, plus batting or fill for padding. You might select contrasting cotton and silk to make a pretty toe holder that pops from the slipper sole. It’s recommended to use a machine washable fabric that you can toss in with the laundry. Cotton prints work great, or you can try a polyester fleece or twill like cotton.

Trace your foot out on a sheet of paper to make a simple pattern. Cut out the shape of each foot on folded fabric (so you have two pieces per foot) with a half an inch around the edges. Turn your pieces facing inside out, and sew along the top, bottom and the bottom/heel part of each side.

Cut a one inch wide double folded piece about a foot long. This will be your toe holder. Sew along open edge so it makes one strip.

Next, you can turn your slipper sole inside out, slip in the padding, and align your toe strip so that the two ends can be sewn into the bottom toe portion of your sole leaving about a half an inch at the top for your toes to pop out. You might consider making these stitches have thick exterior nubs for traction on the sole.

Sew neatly closed. To make it look really pro, think about adding a ribbon or trim around your seam, or add embellishments to your toe.

There are lots of other great patterns for slippers online and vary in terms of level of difficulty. I recommend finding some felt and making yourself a proto-type for more difficult slippers before you commit with expensive fabric. Otherwise, modify by making a long half inch strip of fabric for your heel and cover the full toe with a foot wide piece of doubled fabric.

Felt Slippers How-To

1. Use templates. Trace onto 1/8-inch-thick wool felt, and cut out (you will need 2 sole pieces and 2 upper pieces per slipper; remember to flip the soles over for the opposite foot). Stack the sole pieces.

2. Place the upper pieces together, and then sew the heel and the instep with a straight stitch, 3/16 inch from edge. Open, and pin to the sole pieces, first at the heel and toe, then along the sides. Sew all the way around, through all layers, 3/16 inch from the edge.

3. Add a decorative stitch with embroidery floss, like the X pictured on the big red slipper opposite. To add custom fabric name tags, print them on iron-on tape using a label maker, and apply to top layer of sole before sewing slipper.