You remember a couple of days ago, I mentioned assassinating FL’s slippers in the boil-wash?
Well, I was determined to save them. Simple Shoes went out of business some time ago and I haven’t come across another company which makes its slippers entirely out of recycled materials.
Apart from ripped felt on their upper surfaces, and detached crepe soles, they were, to borrow FL’s favourite phrase: “Perfectly good!”
I thought about embroidering them with thick crewel wool, but the padded upper surface was not exactly needle-friendly. And FL has such a difficulty with the iconography of logos / emblems / motifs that I was at a loss to know what sort of pattern to use.
Then I remembered: we have had a spate of sock-felting recently. I am always careful to wash our handknit socks separately, but there have been a couple of hidden-up-the-trouser-leg catastrophes. These socks, the Nexus Sock pattern were quite hard to knit, and I was loathe to throw them out, even though they were too far gone to wear as socks.
So I decided to make use of their felted quality and cut them up to make new uppers for the unfortunate slippers!
My method was simply to pull the sock over the slipper, cutting off the cuff and heel, and slicing up the middle of the sole to ease out the fabric to fit. I then stitched round the upper edges with tough sewing thread and a darning needle, turning under about an inch to the inside of the foot-hole (where the tongue would be on a lace-up shoe). One shoe had a hole at the heel, so I used one of the purple sock-heel sections to cover that. I like the mis-matched look! ;)
Finally, I got a tube of “Serious Glue” and stuck the soles back on, enclosing the edge of the sock, and finished off by covering the raw edges of knitting with a scrap of heavy-duty cotton ric-rac.
I will need to keep an eye on the soles, as I am not sure if I applied enough glue. I wouldn’t want to be the cause of a trip hazard. But apart from that, I am ridiculously pleased with my efforts!
FL chortled.
Under the circumstances, I view that as a success!
