Hello, my friends! Amid the swirl of book launch prep, I also made shoes. SHOES.
Espadrilles, to be exact. The Espadrilles Kit from A Happy Stitch, to be even more exact.
They look legit, right? When my lovely friend Melissa of A Happy Stitch contacted me to see if I’d like to try my hand at shoe-making, I was all in.
I was actually a little nervous. There were some super long and curvy needles involved and the very helpful and thorough kit included “needle pullers” (plastic thimble looking things) which intimidated me. I ended up not using them, which I regret because my fingers hurt a bit afterwards.
Making espadrilles, I discovered, is FUN. And way easier than I expected. I knew that I would need to practice a bit to get the hang of things and asked if it would be okay if I made a pair for both me and K. Melissa quickly shipped me all the supplies needed for two pairs.
I would estimate that each pair took me about two hours to make, give or take a few minutes. Sewing up the fabric pieces with the sewing machine is a breeze; after all, there are only two pattern pieces. Even with the interfacing and lining pieces added on, the machine sewing part took just a few short minutes. The most challenging part was the blanket stitching of the pieces to the soles. And this is mostly because I am the world’s slowest hand-stitcher. I started with the black pair (for me), and after a few false starts, I got into a nice stitching rhythm. The instructions are excellent and Melissa went above and beyond with the packaging. I didn’t take beauty shots of the parcel, but you can see the loveliness here. It literally comes with everything you need except a sewing machine (and the thread for the sewing machine, but hey).
I found it tricky to get the fit right, but that might be just me. I knew that the sizing ran big, but I wasn’t sure how deep (wide?) to make my blanket stitches. I guesstimated and the result was a rather loose-fitting pair. I normally wear a size 7, but the espadrilles I completed fit more like a 7.5. On the flip side, I didn’t want the teen size 4 to be too big for K, so I enlarged my blanket stitches yet her feet barely fit. Then again, she’s going through a crazy growth spurt so I probably needed to reduce the blanket stitching dramatically from the get-go to give her more room. Side note: the teen size 4 was about 3/4″ shorter than the women’s size 7, but a lot narrower.
Although I haven’t yet, I plan on re-doing the stitches so that our espadrilles slip on and stay on effortlessly. They look great, though, and I feel irrepressibly proud to have made SHOES! K loves them and is so sad that she’ll only be able to wear them for a nanosecond before she grows out of them. Well, I’ll just have to make her another pair…maybe wedges, next time?
Thank you, Melissa, for letting me try out your beautiful kit! I received the materials for free, but all of my opinions are fully my own. I can’t recommend this kit enough!!! ESPADRILLES! Who woulda thunk they could be DIY’d?
P.S. All those glistening spots you see on the wood floor? M had just taken a shower and had left wet footprints all over the place. Keepin’ it real.
I love them both SO MUCH!! Thanks so much for being a part of the tour! And, the kitty photo totally made me squeal. She’s amazingly adorable!
Our kitty is so adored in our house, it’s kind of ridiculous. Thanks so much for letting me be part of your wonderful tour, Melissa!
Wowee! you made shoes! I like the ones with those smiles. K wears size 4 teen? I am all in a dither about Youth vs child vs womens shoe sizes over here. I think Iris might wear size 5.5 youth which is 7ish womens as well.
K actually wears a size 5 teen now and can almost fit into all of my shoes (I wear size 7). These espadrilles were so fun to make! Thanks, Max!
So you can just give her the black ones?
Good idea! I could, though her feet are so much narrower than mine so I’d have to adjust the espadrilles even more ;-).
I am lucky enough to live in France, not too far from the Basque area where espadrilles originated, and whilst I wear them all the time in the summer I struggle to get a good fit these days – and good ones are very expensive. Believe me, even if you have to ‘fiddle around’ with the blanket stitching a little, these look great. I may investigate buying a kit if they are shipped to Europe. We used to have an old expression in northern England “coals to Newcastle” which is what this would be!
PS : your kitten is adorable.
How lovely! I have a dream of one day living in France part-time (dream big, right?). I highly, highly recommend this kit and Melissa does a great job with the whole thing. I hope she ships internationally! She provides tips on adjustments as well! And yes, our kitty has us completely wrapped around her paws :-).