The weather is warming up, and I looked out Le Footwear from last summer and recoiled in horror at the hideously decrepit state of Le Thongs. I wear my thongs a tonne, and for everything; walking the dog, housework, to the beach where there happens to be quite a lot of that stuff that I now know is like the WORST thing that could ever happen to all handmade footwear… wet sand!
So I decided to make some new ones. Behold, Le Result. Yes, I initially planned for ordinary, regular, garden variety thongs like last years’ but made these instead. They’re a bit spiffier looking than your average thongs, technically they could fit into the sandal category. Really though; flat sole, no heel, not much shaping, no closure. They’re basically glorified thongs.
Cassie had brought home a sample of echo-panel; a decorative acoustic panel made from recycled PET bottles. It is a soft, highly compressed fibrous product, very strong and slightly pliable but not “snappable”, with a texture and feel to it very similar to thick wool felt. I have some of this white, and some grey too. Anyway I decided to give it a whirl. For the upper bits I used some white vinyl leftover from my grassy sandals, because white is so useful for summer. Goes with everything! Also, being my first trial with the echo panel I didn’t want to risk any of my precious leather, just in case there was some disaster.
And there was, a little bit!
Well, not really, actually they turned out just fine in the end. It was just that gluing anything to the echo-panel was a pain and a half. I was using all-purpose PVA glue, and found that the echo-panel just soaked it all up like a sponge. Like, literally, PVA just disappeared into the “woolly-ness” of it almost without a trace of stickiness to be felt. Bizarre.
Really, though; any difficulties were entirely my own fault, because it turns out that Cassie had thoughtfully sent me an email with a pdf of info about the product, which clearly states that the adhesive to use is liquid nails. If I hadn’t so busy making and spent just a little more time keeping up with my correspondence, there wouldn’t have been any problems! Anyway, I learnt. I had that aha! moment. Eventually!
There’s a single layer of the echo-panel inside; I cut the sole shapes with a hacksaw, and neatened up any rough bits and errant “corners” with a Stanley knife. The echo-panel is beautiful to cut, no doubt about that.
Uppers: this particular vinyl has that very rubbery texture which sticks to the presser foot, leading to horribly uneven stitches. I usually use a strip of tissue paper to facilitate the vinyl going evenly through the machine; but these strips are really really skinny, wonky stitching would stand out a mile and I wanted to get the topstitching perfectly even in appearance, and you can’t see through tissue paper so it just wasn’t going to cut it this time. I found though, that by turning the vinyl upside down it all worked out quite smooth and fairly easy to sew.
A bit of faffing about with strips and I finally settled upon a nice simple, multi-strapped design, cut a denim “inner sole” piece and zigzagged all the strips to this underneath the echo-panel layer, to anchor them securely into position inside the sandal. This denim inner sole is sandwiched between, and securely glued to the echo-panel above and the cork sole below. So it’s not visible in the final sandal, also, none of those strips is in danger of pulling out!
I toyed with the idea of leaving the echo-panel showing on the edge, but its woolliness actually picks up every stray hair and twig, and the white shows like every smudge, and I decided a smooth, dark edge would be less of a headache. More sensible, hides the dirt, you know. I cut and glued on a nice evenly cut strip of dark denim to the outside edge, pinning in a few strategic places where the denim didn’t instantly stick to the inner curves of the sole. Those pins can just be seen in the picture below; I sort of thought they would be a temporary measure until the glue dried, however they got pretty firmly glued in themselves and proved impossible to get out! so I’ve left them in there. After this picture was taken I went back and touched them all up with a dob of black paint so now they’re invisible. And, then they were further sealed in with several coats of varnish over the denim, so they’re pretty secure. I don’t think I have to worry that they’ll ever come out 
Everything was firmly glued into position, and I glued a layer of cork to the bottom. Three coats of satin varnish on the cork sole and those denim side strips later, and done!!
So yes, they’re quite simple and plain and not far removed from the humble thong, but I think they’re just a wee bit smarter and should go very nicely with all my casual summer stuff.
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