This is another preview into my upcoming e-book on making sandals at home. I’m in the finishing phase, it’s so exciting to finally come to an end with something I started 2 years ago!
Sandals embroidered with a goat’s skin leather cordHow come I began making my own sandals? As with clothes I seldom found sandals, or shoes for that matter, that I really liked. I always had to settle for what was available.
Once in a while I buy printed fabric, I just couldn’t resist this one. It is dyed with natural indigo by women of the Bai tribal minority in Yunnan province/South West China. They use an ancient technique of stencilling, stitching and tying the cloth before dying it with indigo.
I love making leather cuff bracelets, they make great presents and are quick to create. Leather is one of my favourite materials to work with.
I make rings, necklaces and earrings out of leather and draw on them with a pyrography tool (basically a hot pen), or decorate them using leather stamps, acrylic leather paints, rivets or charms.
I discovered spray painting and love it! It’s such an easy and fun way to bring colour to fabrics and the possibilities are endless. Also, a great project to do with older kids, let them decorate their own tops! Read More
I love hand-printed fabric. I often buy plain fabric to challenge myself finding ways to decorate it and give it some sparkle. I find stencilling fabrics an easy and fun way to beautify fabric. There are many ways to go about it. Here I did the most basic way of creating a stencil.
I used what I had around the house, paper, a craft knife, some textile paint and a piece of foam. I drew a design on paper, cut the stencil out with the craft knife and dabbed textile paint through it with a piece of foam. I then used a fabric paint pen to add a bit more colour.
I used red linen from Organic Textile Company, the binding is silk and the edge I crocheted with embroidery thread. The pattern is self-drafted. I read this book to teach myself basic pattern making Design-It-Yourself Clothes: Patternmaking Simplified.
Making children’s shoes is especially rewarding because you know what they are made of. Most shoes offered today consist of synthetic, glued together components that aren’t healthy for a growing and more vulnerable body. Wearing shoes made of such material often leads to sweaty (and sometimes smelly) feet.
There is something special about hand stitching clothes. First of all there is no noise, no rattling of a sewing machine. Then there is the slowness of it, what is the hurry anyway. Also I can sit outside in the sunshine while stitching and hear the birds sing or watch my children play.
I’m nearly finished writing a sandalmaking e-Book. These photos show one of the 8 sandals to make in the book.
Although I’ve been making sandals for over 10 years now, I’ve learned so many new things while making the projects for the book, researching everything from scratch as if I was a beginner.
They say the best way to get familiar with a subject is to write a book about it, this is so true. It certainly has taken my sandalmaking to a new level.
But it’s not only the content of the book that has challenged me to go new ways, it’s also the technical side about self-publishing an e-Book that opened a new world to me, I’m so fascinated by it all.
In the process of writing the book, I’ve taught myself product photography, in design and setting up a blog and landing page. Of course, there is no end to learning, something new to master always comes up.
The book How to make unique leather sandals is available now! Follow the link to find out more about the book!
Why do boys’ clothes have to be so boring? My 5-year-old loves colours and so do other boys, I’m sure, yet the clothes available for them are often so dull.
This t-shirt I made using the reverse appliqué technique. I first stencilled a design onto the fabric, sewed around each shape with embroidery thread and then cut the shapes out to show the fabric underneath.
I love decorating leather. This batik leather wallet is the result of my recent discovery that leather can be decorated using the batik technique.
I was inspired by photographs in a leathercraft book from the 70s where someone applied paint to leather with the batik technique, when I saw the photos (black and white, unfortunately) I just had to try it out.
I experimented with different designs and colour combinations using up all my leather scraps in the process (and a lot of dye) until I had a surface I liked and which I stitched into this wallet.
