DIY Slippers

Nowadays, many people would choose to throw away their slippers even with little damage, unaware that basic repairs can restore them to functional use. This project is a wallet-friendly fix that plans to repair your old, worn down, cheap slippers into a new pair of soft and comfortable slippers to make them usable again. Instead of throwing them away, we aim to help people realize that slippers can be repaired easily, hence saving money and reducing waste. By following us step by step, everyone can bring their repaired slippers to travel or wear in their house by using reusable and cheap materials.

1. Old, cheap slippers
2. Old towel
3. Thread
4. Needle
5. Scissors
6. Paper (substitute: cardboard, wrapping paper, leather) 
7. Pencil / Pen / Marker
8. Ruler

Place the old slipper on top of a piece of paper that is larger than the slipper by at least 1.5 cm

With a pencil, pen or marker, trace the outline of both slippers onto the sheet of paper

Measure and draw a dotted line 1.5 cm around the outside of the traced outlines

Cut the piece of paper along the dotted lines

Use a marker to trace the pair of paper outlines on the old towel twice

Do NOT throw away the remaining fabric

Cut Out Traced Slipper Sole

Draw a line 1.5cm outside the paper pattern with a marker. It should flare out towards the heel. The length does not need to be exact for this part as it will vary depending on the slipper you have. For your reference, the distance we have between the paper pattern and the line is 5cm.

Repeat Step 7 four times.

Cut out the four pieces

Cut off the upper parts off the old slippers

Cut the remaining towel into small pieces. Roughly 2 x 3 cm.

Place the cut up pieces of fabric on top of the sole of the old slipper.

Sandwich the sole and pieces of fabric between two sole-shaped pieces of towel.

Sew the edges of the slippers shut. Start the first stitch on the inside so that it won’t be seen. (We suggest double threading). We used a basic running stitch, but a blanket stitch would work well too! Refer to Figure 1 for the length of thread we used.

Sew two layers of the upper pieces together only on the straight edge. Do the same with the remaining two pieces.

Align the right side of the round edge with the front right part of the sole along the path of the thread.

Continue to sew on the round edge, but this time sew with the sole as well.

Once you are near the center of the front of the slipper, start to shift the upper piece to align with the left side of the sole.

Trim off excess fabric. (do not cut the thread!!)

There you have it!