Monday 9 January 2017

9th January 2017

The knee continues to hamper movement.
Hope restored with almost hobble free walking, then dashed when the tendon? ligament? muscle? at the back and to the side (outer), of the knee begins to hurt again and exaggerated hobbling resumes.  At least my bum is reacquainted with the sofa, it's lowness no longer a barrier.

Plans to visit the skate park are saved by my housemate, who takes Rye and her children there this afternoon.  The sun even shone its benediction on the outing.  I'm bored, these four walls are beginning to press in on me.  To distract myself, I nosey in my wip basket; there's crochet flower motifs ready for hanging into bunting, granny triangles needing blocking, a half finished freeform baby jumper, the base of a gnome house, random scrumbles, and my grotty falling apart red slippers I began covering with scrumbles several months ago.

Cold toes nudge me about the slippers, and I pull them out and decide today is the day.  I find my sheet of faux leather and cut out soles.  I've no idea how to add them properly - in my mind's eye I keep seeing the stitching on Dr Martins boots, and have a vague idea of doing something like that.
I start by gluing the soles to the slippers.  One of the slippers has scrumbles already attached and it occurs to me this could make hiding the edges of the sole difficult.


I work on the slipper without any scrumbles first.  Using a running stitch, I sew the sole onto the bottom on the slipper, my idea being, I will cover the raw edges of the sole with scrumbles as I attache them.  It's not as easy as I imagined, and at some point it occurs to me that folding the edge over and whip stitching it to the slipper is probably the best plan.  I use No.8 Anchor pearlised cotton, reading later online, I discover that waxed thread is probably the better option as it's longer lasting.  I make a mental note to buy some.

The second sole I glue to the bottom of the slipper - it holds the sole in place, and I suspect it will put less pressure on sewed sides. The blanket stitch is trialed...nah.  Whip stitch it is.  It' rather awkward to sew the sole on.  I'm pleased with the second sole, I prefer the sole whip stitch, despite the lack of consistency in the stitches.
I consider the mechanics of creating a slipper from scratch with faux leather soles.   Wee ideasbegin to formulate.



My index finger is sore from the sewing - my toes are thankful.  so warm and toasty.
I love my new slippers!

Oooh I took some better photos:




Playing with designs and mechanics of construction for slippers made from scratch now too, I'm also thinking of offering a service where I will repair and breath new life into old favourite slippers - re-use rather than throwing away!!  

What do you think?  Would it be a service you'd be interested in?


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