Can you make a pair of cute summer shoes for under $10? Absolutely, and it’s super easy too. A few summers ago I made some shoes using a kit I ordered from a company called A Happy Stitch . It was really fun and simple but it got me wondering if there were other options I could use for the soles. Then it hit me: Could I use flip flops? Sure, why not? Keep reading to see how I turned a pair of old jeans and some flip flops into some comfy shoes perfect for summer.

Supplies…

The only thing I purchased for this project was the soles. I found these white flip flops for less than $5 at Walmart. I thought they would be perfect for the soles of the shoes. I also had a pair of old jeans that I thought would look great as a pair of shoes, so I used that for the shoe fabric. I had some black cotton yarn and several embroidery needles. Plus, I already had the shoe pattern from when I made my previous pair a couple years ago. If you don’t have one you can easily find them for men and women on etsy. Or you can try your hand at making your own. 

Preparing the shoe and soles…

I cut the straps off and then glued the little circle things back into the holes on the bottom of the flip flops so they won’t let little rock or water in. It’s really up to you whether or not you do this. Then, To make sure all my stitched were even, I made a little mark every ⅝” all the way around my flip flops so I would know where to put the needle.

The pattern says to cut 2 of out and 2 of liner fabrics. I used some thinner, tan fabric scraps I had for the liner. I didn’t want to use the denim for both the inside and outside because it would have been too thick to hand sew to the flip flop soles.

Fitting the shoes…

Once I had the different shoe parts assembled I needed to fit them to my foot before attaching them to the flip flop soles. To do that I situated my foot on the flip flop and then pinned the other parts together, making sure they would fit both the flip flop sole and my foot. Then I sewed them at the sides with my sewing machine.

Stitching the Sole…

Once the shoe uppers were fitted and stitched I  could attach them to the flip flop sole. You do this by using a blanket stitch. If you don’t know what that is, here is a video that demonstrates that really well. It took me 45 min per shoe to blanket stitch the top to the flip flop. 

Finishing touch…

Once it was done I felt like it needed something else. So I looked in my craft box and found a spool of Jute. So I cut four strands long enough to go around the bottom of the shoe and glued it on. I really like the way that it turned out. I feel like it makes them look less homemade. 

The flip flops soles are super comfy and I think I like them more than the first pair I made. They were super fun and really easy to make. Not sure how durable they are but I will definitely be wearing them this Summer for as long as I can. I would definitely recommend you try this if you want to make your own shoes this Summer.

Have you ever thought of making your own summer shoes? Maybe this will help give you at least one idea on how to do that. Let’s be friends on all the socials! Come follow along on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook so we can chat about all our sewing projects!