DIY Embroidered Espadrilles

 As one of their Master Makers Fairfield World provided me with supplies used in this project as well as compensating me for this post, but all ideas and opinions are my own. This post also includes affiliate links. 

This past month I have had such a hard time keeping up with blogging, I think partially this pregnancy has just taken a lot out of me, then you throw in the end of the school year with everything the kids have going on, it has just been a crazy few weeks. Hopefully I can get back in a good routine and get back to posting more regularly but going into summer with all of the kids home and 2 months left of this pregnancy, I'm not making any promises. I actually have lots of projects to post about, some that are already finished and some that I am working on, it is just getting them written up that I have been having a hard time with. Today I am sharing a project that I have been meaning to do for a while and finally got done. I made a pair of shoes for my daughter. That probably seems like kind of a strange thing to make but it was actually really easy.

Several months ago Dritz came out with a new line of products to make your own Espadrilles. They offered to send me a kit so that I could try it out. They had adult, child, and toddler sizes to choose from so I decided to get some that would fit my oldest daughter. They have the jute soles, which are really they only part that come in specific size, lots of choices of fabric both for the outside and the lining although you could also use your own fabric, as well as lots of other little tools and accessories to make assembling the shoes easier.

From the time I first go the kit I was planning on embroidering them. I wanted to do something different and fun. My first plan was to embroider little flowers across the toe section or something like that. Then a few days before I actually made them I got another little package in the mail, a bag of thread from Kreinik. They sent me one of their Bag O' Bits, lots of little pieces of thread in shiny metallic colors. Most of the threads were a little thicker, almost like a thin cording or even a flat ribbony type thread. I thought that it would be fun to use those threads instead of plain old embroidery floss. One of the colors that happened to come in my bag was a bright shiny purple that I thought would work well with the bright pink outer fabric and polka dot lining we had chosen. I decided that since I was using a fancier thread I would just keep the embroidery really simple and I just ended up doing three rows of running stitch across the toe section. I think it ended up working well to add a nice little extra touch to the shoe without being too much.

I also used a couple different kinds of interfacing from Fairfield World to help put my shoes together. In the end I thought it was kind of fun to try making shoes, something I had never done before, and my daughter loved the way they turned out and has worn them around a lot since I finished them. The kit from Dritz made it pretty easy because it comes with the pattern and assembly instructions. I did just a few things differently than the basic instructions, the embroidery as well as adding a pull tab to the back of the shoe, so I will share how I made the changes that I made.

How to Make Embroidered Espadrilles

You will need:

• Espadrille soles from Dritz (includes pattern and assembly instructions)
• Outer fabric from Dritz or fat quarter of heavy fabric
• Lining fabric from Dritz or fat quarter of fabric
• Stabilize lightweight fusible interfacing (small piece)
• Structure medium weight fusible interfacing (small amount)
• Metallic thread for embroidery from Kreinik
• Yarn from Dritz
• Thread wax
• Large needles, straight or curved
• straight pins
• point turner
• scissors
• coordinating thread
• sewing machine
• iron

Instructions:

The first thing I did was cut out my shoe pieces. I followed the pattern to cut the fabric for the lining and the outer fabric. I cut the interfacing pieces from Structure, and I cut a toe piece for each shoe from Stabilize. I also cut 2- 3" x 3" squares of the lining fabric. These will be used to make pull tabs for the heel, I also thought that if the shoes ended up being a little big it would give me the option of putting a ribbon through to tie it around the ankle but I didn't end up needing to do that.

Iron the interfacing on to the following pieces- lightweight interfacing on wrong side of outer toe fabric, toe stabilizer on the tip of the wrong side of lining toe fabric, heel stabilizer on center of wrong side of heel lining fabric.

Embroider desired design on toe outer fabric piece. I measured down about 1 inch to give me plenty of room for seam allowances and stitched 3 close rows of running stitch.

Make the pull tabs by folding the 3" squares in half and then folding the raw edges in to the center. Stitch closely to each edge.

Sew shoe pieces together following pattern but when you sew the heel piece fold the pull tab in half and sandwich between the two fabric pieces in the center of the top edge of the heel.

Assemble the shoe following the pattern. It is kind  of fun to get to the point where you pin the shoe to the sole because it actually starts to look like a shoe.

When my daughter first tried on the first shoe that I finished I was nervous that they would be too tight where the toe and heel section are sewn together but after I got the other shoe done and she tried them on again it seemed to be fine so I think it might have been the way she was trying to get her foot in the shoe. As soon as I finished them she wanted to wear them and ended up wearing them all day. We went to the park and ran some errands and were out for a good amount of time and they seemed to stay on her feet just fine. She seemed happy with the fit and the feel and was pretty excited to have a new pair of shoes.