Comfortable, cute and practical shoes.....why yes they do exist

I've been making my own shoes for a few years now as seen in all these photos, and this is only maybe half of what I've made.

My Very first pair of shoes

Version 2 of shoe pattern

Strappy version

Mum and daughter matching sandals

Winter boots take 2

Winter boots

ballet flat version

The biggest pros for making my own shoes are:

1.  The cuteness factor.   I love having shoes in great patterns and colours and finding them in stores are almost impossible.  And if I do find a pair of shoes I like in they invariably come with 5 inch heels, which leads me to point 2.

2.  Comfort.  For me comfort is a must.  I will not wear shoes that are uncomfortable no matter how cute they are.  If I could walk around all day barefooted I'd be happy, but  society says I can't, so minimalist shoes are the next best thing.  The main things I look for is a flexible sole, no heel rise and a wide toe box as I have very wide feet.

There are however a few cons that come with the homemade shoes:

1. The flexible soling material that I use wears out very fast, meaning I have to make new shoes every season.

2. The shoes are not always practical in adverse weather like rain or snow.

So as the weather is starting to cool down once again I decided it was time for another new pair of shoes.  As much as I love the bright coloured and patterned shoes, I have found that there are occasions where my shoes just don't go with the rest of my outfit, so I decided that this pair should be a bit more subdued.  I did not however want to make a plain pair of black shoes.

Rummaging through my wardrobe I found an old skirt that I made over 10 years ago and have worn probably twice in that time.  It was made from a heavy cotton fabric that is a very dark gray with black flocked velvet flowers.  I decided that the skirt could be refashioned into a much more wearable pair of shoes.

Original skirt with the shoe vamps cut out

Now whilst I've made myself many pairs of shoes over the years I don't think any two have been made from the same pattern, there's always something that I don't quite love that I think could be done better so I'm constantly tweaking the pattern. My last pair of shoes were very comfortable.

But they were a bit bulbous around the toes.  This time around I used the same pattern, but extended the toe into a point - I love me some pointy toed shoes.

There are 7 different materials I used to make these shoes.

1. The outside is the refashioned skirt material.

2. The vamp is then lined with a waterproof PUL material left over from my days of making nappies/diapers.  I added this to the shoes in an attempt to make them slightly more waterproof. They're still not going to be fully waterproof as there are all sorts of holes in the material where its been sewn, but hopefully it'll keep my feet fairly dry.

3.  Finally there is a layer of fleece left over from one of my kids clothes projects on the inside of the upper shoe for warmth and comfort.

Showing fleece and innersole material

4. On the bottom of the inside of the shoe is a heavy weight brown mystery material that I bought long ago for a halloween costume.  Its like a heavy weight super duty velvet that I hope will stand up to a lot of wear.  I've found before that when I've used fleece or cotton in this area is really wears out fast.

5. On the bottom of the sole is a special soling material that I bought off etsy (no longer available).  It is basically a heavy knit fabric to which a thin layer of rubber has been vulcanised. It can be machine sewed which I like as it means no gluing is required.

showing sole material underneath

6.  Between the outer sole and the inner sole I've put a piece of 1/4" thick craft foam.  In this case it was foam in the form of those door hangers that you find in the kids craft section.

7. I've also added silicone gel pads that I found in my local dollar shop on top of the foam, underneath the balls of my feet for extra cushioning.

I wore these for the first time today. There is a little bit of pinching around my toes doe to the point, but as the shoe stretches this will probably reduce.  The thing I love the best about these shoes at the moment is the way the toe turns up a little at the tip giving it a bit of a pixie look.