MAKE YOUR OWN ESPADRILLES // GET YOUR CRAFT ON

Sorry it's been a little quiet here, I had all intentions of posting last week while in France but at 37 degrees neither me or my mac seemed to cope with the heat, but I'm back and have some fab posts to share with you. A few weeks ago I spent a few day in London to attend the wonderful Blogtacular Blogging Conference – post coming on this soon – and a travel trade show. Sandwiched between the two was a fun craft morning making my own Espadrilles with The Makery in the Regent Street John Lewis store.

Slightly fuzzy from the Blogtacular/Pinterest after party at the West Elm Store, I arrived with Lottie and Sarah-Lou, with a coffee in hand ready to take on the table of sewing machines. The super lovely Kate was there to meet us and a few other ladies were already in full swing. Our first job was to purchase a piece of fabric from the huge range available in the haberdashery department and cut out our templates, I chose this fab retro material.

Once I’d cut the two shapes needed from my patterned fabric and a lining material the next job was to tackle the sewing machine. It’s been quite a while since I’ve used a machine, in fact the last time may have been at university, so with an unsteady hand I set about sewing together the two pieces with a 10mm margin. Pleasantly surprised by the results I then set about pinning the pieces to the soles which come with the kit before attempting the hand stitch.

After Kate got me started, I sat engrossed with the task at hand, stitching back and forth, enjoying the process and when I’d finished one shoe I slipped it on to admire my handy work. It fit! I made a shoe! I felt such a sense of accomplishment and surprise, it’s not often you can say ‘well today I made some shoes’ is it?

The kit instructions were super easy to follow and are available to buy from The Makery, I’m going to buy F’s size so I can make matching shoes for summer *insert geek face* plus they’re sooo comfy! Like wearing slippers outside.

You can check out the DIY YouTube video below and also buy your own kit here. This should definitely be on your things to do list this summer.