Corduroy slippers

If you're still wondering about this sneak peek I gave you on Monday,

you need wonder no more! Nope - not a bag this time. Slippers!

They're made from Jess's upcoming (in July) Spring Quartet babywale corduroy fabric and faux sheepskin. Also, you can't see it, but the bottom is navy pleather.

Here they are on Jess's (ahem) dainty little feet.

I made them following a tutorial by Melly Sews. She has a ton of tutorials, found here (you have to scroll way down to "Sewing for Men", although the pattern is a women's size 6!), but you only get access to the tutorials by subscribing to her newsletter. Fair enough, I'd say. By subscribing, you get to learn about new tutorials as soon as they're available.

This wasn't one of my favorite or neatest sewing projects. The tutorial was easy enough to follow, but it was the faux sheepskin that gave me trouble. I got some through Amazon (which actually came from Fabric.com) as per Melly's suggested link in the tutorial, and I found it challenging to work with because it was thin, stretchy, and MESSY! I had little bits of fluff everywhere!

It even plugged up the eye of my sewing machine needle at one point. It was also kind of hard to see where to sew the seam, so I don't know how good a job I did on that... and by that point I really didn't care. Ha.

It was also somewhat hard to get a good fit, since Jess wasn't here to try anything on, although she'd traced around her foot and sent me that for something to go by. There was a lot of adjusting to do in the pattern pieces. These ended up somewhat too big for Jess, but better that than too small. Yet the hole for putting them on was almost too small... even for my smaller foot. That might have had to do with the non-stretchiness of the corduroy, so if I were to make them again, I'd adjust the pattern and leave that hole bigger.

All in all, they were quick to make, the tutorial well-written (with a demo video included), and they'd have gone much better had I used a fleece fabric for the lining... which I might try sometime.

One thing I did differently is that I added a layer of foam just for a little cushioning, and I think that was a good idea. I sewed it to the bottom of the lining sole. Well, I sewed ONE to a lining sole. I forgot to include the other one until I was all done and picking up my stuff to head upstairs and discovered the foam piece still lying there - AARGH! So I ripped out the turning hole and stuck the foam in that way, which was rather challenging, to say the least. Then I pulled it back out because it was bunching up because I should've trimmed off the seam allowance! THEN I got smart and used my forceps to get it back in because it had been so hard the first time around. That worked well. Finished, finally. A day in the life of a sewer. ;-Þ