The weather is warming up, and I looked out Le Footwear from last summer and recoiled in horror at the hideously decrepit state of Le Thongs. I wear my thongs a tonne, and for everything; walking the dog, housework, to the beach where there happens to be quite a lot of that stuff that I now know is like the WORST thing that could ever happen to all handmade footwear… wet sand!
So I decided to make some new ones. Behold, Le Result. Yes, I initially planned for ordinary, regular, garden variety thongs like last years’ but made these instead. They’re a bit spiffier looking than your average thongs, technically they could fit into the sandal category. Really though; flat sole, no heel, not much shaping, no closure. They’re basically glorified thongs.
Cassie had brought home a sample of echo-panel; a decorative acoustic panel made from recycled PET bottles. It is a soft, highly compressed fibrous product, very strong and slightly pliable but not “snappable”, with a texture and feel to it very similar to thick wool felt. I have some of this white, and some grey too. Anyway I decided to give it a whirl. For the upper bits I used some white vinyl leftover from my grassy sandals, because white is so useful for summer. Goes with everything! Also, being my first trial with the echo panel I didn’t want to risk any of my precious leather, just in case there was some disaster.
And there was, a little bit!
Well, not really, actually they turned out just fine in the end. It was just that gluing anything to the echo-panel was a pain and a half. I was using all-purpose PVA glue, and found that the echo-panel just soaked it all up like a sponge. Like, literally, PVA just disappeared into the “woolly-ness” of it almost without a trace of stickiness to be felt. Bizarre.
Really, though; any difficulties were entirely my own fault, because it turns out that Cassie had thoughtfully sent me an email with a pdf of info about the product, which clearly states that the adhesive to use is liquid nails. If I hadn’t so busy making and spent just a little more time keeping up with my correspondence, there wouldn’t have been any problems! Anyway, I learnt. I had that aha! moment. Eventually!
There’s a single layer of the echo-panel inside; I cut the sole shapes with a hacksaw, and neatened up any rough bits and errant “corners” with a Stanley knife. The echo-panel is beautiful to cut, no doubt about that.
Uppers: this particular vinyl has that very rubbery texture which sticks to the presser foot, leading to horribly uneven stitches. I usually use a strip of tissue paper to facilitate the vinyl going evenly through the machine; but these strips are really really skinny, wonky stitching would stand out a mile and I wanted to get the topstitching perfectly even in appearance, and you can’t see through tissue paper so it just wasn’t going to cut it this time. I found though, that by turning the vinyl upside down it all worked out quite smooth and fairly easy to sew.
A bit of faffing about with strips and I finally settled upon a nice simple, multi-strapped design, cut a denim “inner sole” piece and zigzagged all the strips to this underneath the echo-panel layer, to anchor them securely into position inside the sandal. This denim inner sole is sandwiched between, and securely glued to the echo-panel above and the cork sole below. So it’s not visible in the final sandal, also, none of those strips is in danger of pulling out!
I toyed with the idea of leaving the echo-panel showing on the edge, but its woolliness actually picks up every stray hair and twig, and the white shows like every smudge, and I decided a smooth, dark edge would be less of a headache. More sensible, hides the dirt, you know. I cut and glued on a nice evenly cut strip of dark denim to the outside edge, pinning in a few strategic places where the denim didn’t instantly stick to the inner curves of the sole. Those pins can just be seen in the picture below; I sort of thought they would be a temporary measure until the glue dried, however they got pretty firmly glued in themselves and proved impossible to get out! so I’ve left them in there. After this picture was taken I went back and touched them all up with a dob of black paint so now they’re invisible. And, then they were further sealed in with several coats of varnish over the denim, so they’re pretty secure. I don’t think I have to worry that they’ll ever come out 🙂
Everything was firmly glued into position, and I glued a layer of cork to the bottom. Three coats of satin varnish on the cork sole and those denim side strips later, and done!!
So yes, they’re quite simple and plain and not far removed from the humble thong, but I think they’re just a wee bit smarter and should go very nicely with all my casual summer stuff.
O hey-a! After finishing my own Kelly anorak and having it admired to the nth degree by family members, I made a few more! a pale grey one for Cassie, and I also made a deep cobalt blue one for Tim’s girlfriend Kelly. Well, it seemed only right that she should have a “Kelly” too!
I quickly snapped that top picture of an unsuspecting Cassie waiting to meet up with me in town before she noticed me heading towards her… I know it’s a bit blurry and not very posed to show off the anorak to modelly perfection, but I just really like it nonetheless… to me it attests that she’s been wearing it a tonne, in fact every single occasion that I’ve seen her in the past three weeks since I finished it and gave it to her she has been wearing it. There’s no greater compliment to a seamster than that! as well as a testament to the pattern being an absolute style winner. Kelly’s worn hers each time I’ve seen her since I gave it to her too, but I’ve not taken any pictures of her in it.. will update if she sends me one 🙂
Both the anoraks are in a nice weight cotton drill from Spotlight, in fact, all the other bits and pieces are from Spotlight too. In both anoraks, I added a few inches to the length of the body and modified the pockets to have separate pocket flaps so as to close the pockets; otherwise these are both made up exactly to the pattern.
This picture below of Kelly’s anorak has been my most “liked” picture on instagram ever! far more than anything I have ever made for myself! Interesting, no? Well, I think it is, anyway 😉 I don’t know what that “says”, if anything at all, but maybe something. Social media is such a funny phenomenon. Something else also interesting to me is how a person, any person, can have a certain number of followers and the number of “likes” never ever reaches anywhere close to that number. Honestly, I have no idea about how or why this is so, but it’s just a curious thing.
I’d got enough of the same white cord for Kelly’s anorak , but since I’d found a nice, perfectly colour-matched blue zip for hers’, and used blue thread for all topstitching and there was no other white anywhere in the jacket; the white cord looked all wrong. And naturally there’s no such thing as blue cord in the whole of Perth! so I just had to dye it. And, when your regular dye-pot is HUGE and there’s just one little length of cord what’s a mad maker to do? but of course, improvise.
Details:
The soles are cut from rubber sheeting, from Bunnings. I made my own stacked heels, as usual, glued them all together with contact adhesive, and sanded them all off nice and smooth before giving them a blacking, and finally a coat of satin varnish. On some of my shoes I’ve started to varnish underneath the soles too, like I saw 
It’s not a super supportive thing, but realistically I have no need for a super supportive bra anyway. I still think it’s pretty stable though; I stitched the clear elastic that came with the kit along each side of the cups; so they won’t stretch out, and stitched a little strip of bias-cut white linen in with the side seams. I trimmed the linen strip right down before encasing it within the side seam, so it doesn’t show…. and this stabilised the side seams and makes them nice and strong, and they won’t stretch out either.
‘s kinda crazy and huge-skirted and possibly a bit over the top, but you know what? it’s also extremely comfortable and cosy, and so swirly and swishy. The instant I finished it and put it on I immediately felt simultaneously relaxed, like I had put on a warm comfy dressing gown or something; but also a bit chic as well. The big feminine skirt with a nipped-in waist does that, but I really like how the volume below is balanced out by the mannish style shirt top with cargo pockets and flaps, and a notched collar.
#awkward!! Yes, well; obviously most of us don’t actually twirl very often. Twirling is something of a fashion blogger contrivance… although if I do want to get in a bit of highland flinging I am all set. 😉
make another one!! Doh!! Clearly there’s something terribly wrong with me… #madvogue1247addict
aaaaaand, my week of exclusively wearing Vogue 1247 skirts, in a nutshell…!
