Happy new year guys !!!!

I actually made it a point to share some foot wears out last year that I made from scavenged materials. Honestly speaking most of my slippon are made from my mum’s old hand bags and my worn out denim jeans. So today, I want to share with you guys one crazy way to recycle your foot wears. I hope and I believe that after reading this instructable you will have a rethink when next you want to trash the cut off piece left behind after converting your jeans to shorts or skirt and also give that old shoe of yours a second chance even if it’s not for you it could go to someone else.

The tools you will need are

Measuring tape
blade
shoe cement
a pen for marking
wine bottle scissors
precisson set screw drivers
hammer

the materials you wil need are

Denim material from an old pair of jeans as a whole or cut off
shoe pin.
and a very special and an unusual material an empty engine oil can.

Step 1: Prepare the Old Slippers

Since I am going to scavenge this pair of worn out slippers, I decide to strip it bare into useful and trash parts. The handles were cut off, the landing peeled of(cloth backed vinyl ) and the sole kept for making a sander base in my next instructable.

Step 2: Slippers Support

Start by making the unusual support for the slippers. As you can see I cut out the two sides of the empty 4liter engine oil can as my support. To do this a saw or a sharp carving knife can be used. After cutting the panels out a little cleaning with petrol to wipe away the oil on the support base, clean out the labels and wipe off all grim and dirt on the surface. Place the slippers base on the support and trace out using any sharp object i.e scriber. Disassemble your hack saw ……why? It will make maneuvering the blade easy. A carving knife can also be used here or a scissors. after cutting out the panel, since I didn’t have a sander(and having tried manual hand shaving) I used the edge of the scissors to shave the plastic support into shape.

P/S using emery cloth to shape the support was not effective cause it created small fringes which will need to be cut off too.

Step 3: Cover the Slippers Support.

Now this was a bit tricky for me since I was using the old insole (cloth backed vinyl) as I didn’t know how the surface will bond to the materials. So I applied the cement to the inside surfaces of both the plastic support (engine oil can cut out support ) and the insole. When it was dry to the touch I carefully aligned the edges and pressed the pieces together. I didn’t have a rolling pin so I used a bottle, just so you know, If you align it right the first time, it will bond permanently.

Tips: if you did cut your panel’s right start from the outer side of the heel to attach your piece it’s a little bit straight from there.

Now that your support is primed with the insole, it’s time to cover it up with the denim material. I noticed that the denim absorbed the cement when I applied it the first time so I gave it a base coat and allowed it to dry off completely. Then applied the bonding coat I need for the covering when it was dry to the touch I meshed the support and the denim cover together this mash up was also pressed and rolled flat using a bottle.

P/S note that even with the base coat applied on the the denim initially, the cement on the denim will dry faster than the cement on the front of the cloth backed vinyl landing on the support.

Turning the unit over,i trimed of the excess material then applied cement to about 1cm around the perimeter of the support allowed it to dry to touch, I used a scissors to trim off the excess then I gently pushed the material in, down and pressed it all the way around.

LESSON LEARNT: I also tried a new approach when i was pressing down the lips of the facbric. this was a discovery that came late so i decided to share with furture makers of my instructable, you can cut the lips into sections like i tried doing in the last 3 pictures in this step and as you can see it turned out better; compare the left to the right.

Step 4: Straps

Honestly I didn’t have any studs shoe pins or stuff to make the slippers fanciful (am scavenging to make this stuff) but I had the ring I saved from the old slippers straps and a small piece of denim material which was of a darker shade(deep blue). So I decided to add a little design ……and a little colour guess that wouldn’t be a bad idea. So here comes the maths in shoe making.

CREATING THE CENTER SPACE FOR THE DESIGN

My straps where 28cm in length taking measure from the highest point of the top of my feet(center to center of my leg) while the width was 10cm. Now I intended to sew the edges so I apportioned 1cm to the top and bottom leaving the width of the strap to be 10-2cm=8cm.

The length is 28cm so I marked of 4cm on each end and virtually formed a box using the mapping lines. Measuring diagonally I had 21.5cm approx so dividing it into two gave me 10.7’’ so I am not trying to achieve accuracy here but a close fit will pass of easily. Now I wanted to weave a single strand of deep blue denim material into the strap placing the ring at the center. Each weave of the strand requires two holes i.e to enter from below and come back down wards since I needed 4 weaves that will gave me 4*2= 8holes.

Note also that inbetween the weaves were spaces and 3 spaces separated the four weaves I needed. To make the weaves prominent i made them 2cm in lenght while the spaces where 1cm. To get the final length I multiplied the number of weaves by the cm and added the number of spaces to it which gives 4*2=8+3=11cm.

So in all i needed 11cm of space and needed to create 8holes for my weave. After attaching the weave I stitched it up (the edges and the weaving strip). Check out the pictures for a visual expression.

the strips of deep blue denims where made by placing a tape at the end of the fabric and 1cm strips marked out and cut. Then used to weave the straps and sewn in place.

Step 5: Strap Fastening

After I had finished the strap I used my leg for a test fit before I glued it down with a piece of plaster and attached the pins. Using the small flat screw driver i hammered ahole through the support then widened it with another flat screw driver then i pusd in the male part of the the pin then topped it with the female part and hammered down.

so many people will ordinarily just use shoe cement to hold the straps inplace buy i dont wanna put my fate in it. i say this because the straps are fabric and if it comes incontact with water it could give way so i used a shoe pin as we call it here to fasten the straps to the support. a video is included for easy install.

Step 6: the Walking Surface

using the old sole i traced out the new sole, cut it out with a scissors. invertin the cut out sole gave me the other pair. I sanded it down with a piece of emery cloth abrased the inner surface and now it was time to cement the layers together. Applying cement evenly I allowed it dry then placed the two surfaced together and pressed it and there you have your homemade denim slider.

Step 7: Miscellaneous

And that was mum helping out with the build followed by a picture why you should not always improvise it could cause you a whole lot of damage, thanks for reading if love this instructable pls vote for me

cheerios

PLEASE NOTE THAT NO SERIOUS BODY HARM WAS ACQUIRED AS A RESULT OF MAKING THIS INSTRUCTABLE. THE MINOR CUT WAS AS A RESULT OF USING AN IMPROVISED TOOL .........a glass bottle for a roller pin. Sugessted alternatives are: