Transform: T-shirt to Open Sandals for Baby

What I love about T-shirt material is that is it stretchable and for those (like me) who aren't experts in sewing, leaving the cut edges raw and unfinished makes it easy and super fun to work with. I've been wanting to make footwear for a long time and finally I did. Hope this instructable inspires you to do so too.

You will need:

Tshirt (an old one will do)

Thread of a colour matching the tshirt

Pair of scissors

Needle

Step 1: Cut Strips

if the tshirt is too crumpled, iron it first.

Lay it down flat on a table. Cut off the bottom hem. Then cut a strip approx. 1" wide. Stretch the strip so that it curls up.

You will need 6 pieces of approx. 5.5" length for a 8 month old. (It's better to measure the strip to go around the foot of your baby so that you have the correct size. Placing the strip from the top to the sole of the arch.)

Step 2: Sew the Strips

Take 3 strips and place them parallel to each other. Join with a simple stich the center of strip 1 and 2. Then leaving a distance of about an inch from the ends, join strip 2 and 3 as seen in the image.

For joining I placed two strips curled sides facing outwards. Hold the strips on the side and sew. This turned out very simple to do.

Step 3: Cut and Join Oval

Draw and cut an oval of approx. 1" wide and 1.5" length.

Then placing the strips with the curled side facing up, stich the ends to the oval.

Step 4: Make the Flowers

This step is open to your creativity and how you would like to decorate you barefoot sandals. There are numerous types of flowers you can make with fabric. I've chosen to do what I consider among the simplest.

You can change the size of the flower according to the width of the baby's foot.

I made a 6 layered flower, for each sandal, with 2 circles each of lengths 2",1.5" and 1" approx. So you will have to cut out 4pieces of each size to make 2 flowers. Make about 5 or more cuts along the circumference of the circles. The petals will curl on their own or with a slight tug on the corners of each cut . If you feel you want to add more petals you can.

Then simply place 2 circles of each size, 2" first then 1.5" then 1", over each other and stitch the center to hold the layers together.

Step 5: Join Flower to Sandal

Turn the strips with oval, inside out, so that the strip curls are on the inside. Join the flower to the oval. you might want to join along the edge of the oval to the last layer of the flower. Don't worry about the neatness, it will turn out fine once the sandals are worn.