Handmade espadrilles | #prymcontest

Helloooo! I'm seriously excited right now because I'm finally showing you my espadrilles for the prymcontest, in which I had the privilege to participate. For anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about: The prymcontest is a contest organized by Prym, Farbenmix, Swafing and the Handmade Kultur magazine, in the course of which 50 lucky people, who got the chance to participate, received a fantastic (and huge) box full of supplies to make their own espadrilles. The best 10 pairs of espadrilles can win super cool prizes! You can follow the progress and the results of the contestants with the hashtag #prymcontest on Instagram, Facebook and all over the internet! You should really check it out and have a look at what all those crazy talented ladies created! I feel so lucky to participate and to get to know so many lovely and gifted people over the past 4 weeks.

But without further ado, here's my contribution to the prymcontest:

It was quite a journey to create my espadrilles, but I'm very very happy with the result! I love that I came up with something that is totally me and I swear I would totally buy these if I saw them in a shop somewhere.

I started my design process by  searching the internet for inspiration and falling in love with way to many espadrilles. Next, I drew tiny sketches into the notebook that I take with me wherever I go. I decided that I wanted my shoes to look a lot like the classic espadrilles but with a modern twist and I very much wanted to incorporate leather somewhere. I thought that the design I came up with was a bit more advanced than my sewing and pattern-making abilities, but I loved the design too much not to give it a go. The leather piece was the most difficult part, because it is cut in one piece that goes over the front, the sides and the back. You bet it made me break out in a cold sweat more than once. But everything went just as planned. Phew! I'm a tiny little bit proud of myself that my espadrilles turned out so pretty!

The feature I'm  also very smitten with is the small cap at the tip of the shoes. Of course I had to search half of the Internet for the right way to do it, just to find out that it's made with the same stitch that I used along the soles. Naturally. This cap is what really makes it espadrilles for me, because that's what the classic Spanish espadrilles look like. And also, it's darn cute.

I'll post a full tutorial later this week for you. Until then, to shorten the time, Enoy these pictures of my espadrilles and feel free to take a look at the tutorial for the melon espadrilles, that I made last year!