I Made My Own Espadrilles

Kintsugi Inspired, Naturally Dyed

This is an update to my shoe project. My uppers were ready for espadrille making, and I visited the Lisa Teng, a shoe designer and maker last Thursday!  Look how pretty the uppers are! I had an enjoyable time making the uppers of my shoes from upcycled naturally dye fabric remnants. In line with my mending theme, I was inspired by the kintsugi method and replicated it through free motion embroidery for the shoe design.

The whole process of making the shoes (not including my time of stitching the uppers) was about 5 hours. It looks straightforward but as Lisa explained to me, there were many things to take note of, including making sure to tighten the threads, and making sure the uppers were properly aligned with the base of the espadrilles.

After sewing a pair of espadrilles for slightly over 5 hours, I can honestly say that my hands came out really sore, and I was really hungry! I don't think you could use normal sewing needles or thread to make shoes due to the thickness of the soles. 

Here's a video of part of the process - aligning the pieces and then sewing them up. I ran out of memory about 3/4 of the way so that's why this video gives a peek of what we did.