Handmade espadrilles with faux leather details | DIY + free pattern

Espadrilles are all the rage this summer and probably next summer, too. Better stock up on a few pairs! But did you know, that classic espadrilles are ridiculously easy to make yourself? All you need to know are basic stitches by hand and with a sewing machine. You can choose your favorite fabric and sew them in an afternoon. For the very easy classic espadrilles, visit my tutorial for the melon espadrilles from last summer. For a bit more advanced version, read on!

I designed these espadrilles myself for a espadrilles design contest by Prym, Farbenmix, Swafing and the Handmade Kultur magazine (read all about that here). They fit me perfectly and I am more than happy to share the pattern with you. The pattern is in size EU 39 but adjusting should be fairly easy and straight forward. If you print the pattern on A4 paper and set the printer on borderless printing, you'll get the correct size.

What you need:

1 pair of espadrilles soles
not too thin cotton fabrics (1 patterned for the front and 1 plain for the heel and the lining)
soft faux leather
bias binding
thick cotton thread
scissors
fabric glue
fabric fixation tape
pins
needle
sewing machine

Espadrilles Pattern

How it works:

Step 1: First, print, cut and transfer the pieces of the pattern to fabric the following way:
2 mirrored pieces of the sole inlay and the upper from the faux leather.
2 mirrored pieces of the front in patterned fabric (add seam allowance).
2 mirrored pieces of the front in plain fabric (add seam allowance).
2 pairs of mirrored pieces of the heel (add seam allowance).

Step 2: Glue the inlays onto the soles like shown in the picture above.

Step 3: Place the fabric pieces for the front right sides together, a patterned and a plain piece each. Sew around with a sewing machine but leave a small stretch open. Notch the curves of the seam allowance and trim the corners diagonally. Turn right sides out, iron flat and sew over the opening. Add an ornamental seam at the base.

Step 4: Now glue the faux leather uppers to the front pieces with textile glue following the instructions on the glue you're using. Let dry. The back side of the straps might be visible when wearing, so you might want to glue some faux leather to the visible areas as well.

Step 5: Place each two pieces of the heel right sides together and sew the two stretches on both sides of the half circle cut-out together. Turn and iron flat. On the right side, drape bias binding around the remaining stretches and then sew it on.

Step 6: Now you pin everything in place. Don't be afraid to use aaaall the pins! It really helps to get the placement right if you place your feet onto the sole and arrange the pieces around them. Fixate with a few pins before you remove your feet again. Then add a lot more pins.

Step 7: Sew everything together. You sew the fabric to the sole with a blanket stitch. Continue the stitch over the open stretches, too, to get a nice  uniform look.

Step 8: If you like, you can add a cap like this. It's basically only blanket stitch again. Work the stitch narrower and from the sole upwards. Interlock the stitches a bit while you're working upwards.

Step 9: Now you have only the straps left to fixate. Put the espadrilles on and pull the left strap very tight, hold, remove your foot and pin the strap in place, just below the bias binding. Repeat for the right strap. Cut the straps shorter. They should overlap for just 1 or 3 cm in the back.
Repeat for the other shoe.

Step 10: First, mark the places where the straps sit and then fixate them to the fabric below using fixating tape. With a thin brown thread sew with a simple step stitch over the stretch where the straps overlap, sewing the straps together and to the heel piece in one go.

All done! Perfect summer espadrilles that don't have to hide behind the shoes you can buy in stores. And for under 100€! I love mine and they fit me perfectly. They will be worn a lot this summer.

The summer essentials

Obviously, the weather can't decide if it's really summer or more like fall this year, and changing it's mind every week. I wanted to share some of my summer favorites for a while now, but every time the weather changed to rain and boots and warm cardigan weather again and it didn't seem appropriate anymore. But I've learned my lesson and checked the forecast! Ingenious. Now I know that it's not a waste of time to get my toe nails painted, because I can wear sandals for a few days more.

1.hat/even & odd 2.shirt/h&m 3.dungarees/mango 4.sandals/charlotte stone 5.sunscreen/avene 6.blanket/magazin 7.lipstick/anna sui 8.shirt/monki 9.skirt/vila 10.dress/mango 11.swimsuit/h&m 12.lipstick/models own 13.necklace/bojou brigitte 14.shirt/vila 15.bangle/bijou brigitte 16.shorts/h&m 17.sandals/lika mimika

18.nail polish/barry m 19.nail polish/barry m

I've been wearing these or similar things all summer (the good days) this year. Except that denim dress, but I might have to buy that now. I love that I managed to really simplify my closet and love every single item in it. It makes choosing outfits a lot easier if you have a smaller selection of clothes, that you really really love. Take my shoes for example: I'm wearing exactly 5 pairs this summer. three pairs of different sandals, sneakers and chelsea boots for the colder days. I would wear all of them all the time (if I had 10 feet) and picking a pair of shoes for work or for running errands or for a date is just deciding between your favorites. Does that make any sense to you?

I've also worn a lot of bright lipstick colors this summer. My wardrobe color scheme is made of a lot of neutral colors with a lot of black, white and denim in it and a bright lipstick color gives a great pop of color. A bright orangey color is one of my favorites. Bright orange sound bad, but it looks actually very cute. Even if the internet tries to tell me that blond girls with fair skin should wear lipstick with a bluish tinge. I decided to ignore the internet in this point.

All in all I would describe my summer wardrobe as very comfy, relaxed and very versatile, since you can basically pair anything with everything. What clothes are absolutely essential for you this summer? Any must-haves that I missed?

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!

Espadrilles: Summer For Your Feet! | Part II

If you follow me on facebook you know that I am one of 50 people to participate in a contest (#prymcontest) by Prym, Farbenmix, Handmade Kultur and Swafing to make the best, most innovative, prettiest pair of espadrilles. I got the email a few days ago and after a happy-dance and telling the Internet about it, I immediately had to search the web for cool espadrilles. For inspiration so to say. Bad mistake. Well, not really, but the only thing keeping me from spending all my money on a new collection of espadrilles was the fact that I loved them all, they're all so pretty! Now I'm only more excited for my supplies to arrive! (Every participant gets a free package full of supplies that they can use to make their pair of espadrilles)

While we wait for said supplies to arrive, I thought we could have a look at a bunch of pretty espadrilles and dream of summer, the beach, wind in our hair and a cool drink in our hand.
And it's so warm in Berlin today! Maybe I should just buy one pair now....

1.soludos 2.zara 3.soludos 4.soludos 5.lika mimika 6.loeffler randall 7.soludos 8.paez 9.lika mimika

And if you want to see even more pretty espadrilles, check out my post from last year! You can never have enough content about shoes, right? Haha! Have a great day!

What I wore today | 6 + January Review

One month of outfits is over! Well, technically it's almost two months and I'm obviously a bit behind on the drawings, but still... Here's the review of all my outfit drawings of January. You'll find that most outfits are from a Monday, Tuesday or Friday. That's because I'm working on those days and have to dress up and make my hair etc. On all the other days you'll probably find me in sweatpants, my boyfriends huge sweaters and with dirty hair. So, well, not really outfit drawing material. Some facts that you now know about my wardrobe and style:

• I own exactly one coat, two scarves and three pairs of shoes that I wear during winter 
• I wear black pants a lot
• the ponytail is my best friend
• 90% of my socks are bright, colorful and probably have piggies or hearts on them 
• I can't bring myself to put on a dress or a skirt when it's freezing cold outside. I just can't.

What I wore today drawings for the first week of February. The week where I got my hair cut (gasp!).

View all WIWT posts here.

What I wore today | 5

I've been getting poses inspiration from an H&M catalogue and a Schöner Wohnen magazine this week and kinda fell in love with the brown outlines. I think the drawings look more delicate and... professional this way. Which version do you like better?

View all WIWT posts here.

What I wore today | 4

My outfit drawings of week 4 of 2015. Sometimes I catch myself choosing an outfit on how it will look as a drawing or thinking that I can't wear the same jeans three days in a row, because it will look strange in my drawings. But I'm putting more thought in the things I wear and that feels pretty good.
I also started to draw the outlines with a brown pencil instead of black liner. I really like the look of it! I'll definitely draw some more that way and see how it goes.

View all WIWT posts here.

What I wore today | 3

The drawings of my outfits in week 3 of 2015. I've been experimenting with postures and fabric textures a bit more. I realized, that I haven't worn a skirt or dress for months.

View all WIWT posts here.

Baby, it's cold outside | outfit

1.coat/topshop 2.shirt/zara 3.jeans/topshop 4.bag/asos 5.skarf/agnona 6.boots/kmb
7.bracelet/sence copenhagen 8.bangle/christ 9.bracelet/selected femme

It finally got reeeaaally cold in Berlin and my much loved Sorel boots already proved to be one of my better investments this winter. Apart from that, this is what you'll see me in those days: skinny jeans, oversized shirts, cozy skarves and if I owned a coat like that I'd never take it off. The bling's optional.

Early update on my resolutions for 2015

Hi there!
You're probably wondering what I could possibly say about the resolutions that I made only two weeks ago. Well, I made those goals with the intention to jump right into it and get things going - and here we are two weeks later with news about goal 10 - doodle every day. I started out with some random doodles like swirls and circles and buntings and flowers, stuff like that, and got bored pretty soon. So I tackled a more difficult subject: drawing a person. I've never been happy with my people-drawing skills and wanted to improve, so I looked for help on the Internet and got obsessed by these outfit-drawings! I also found it that my drawings got a lot better when I drew my actual outfits that I wore that day and not something I had to make up in my mind. Plus, I treated me with some professional markers (goodbye Christmas money) and although I still need to get the hang of them, the pictures look a thousand times better than with ordinary felt tip pens.

Because I'm so happy with my recent results I thought it might be fun to share some of my outfit drawings with you here on the blog! Yay!
 This is actually a big step for me, not because my drawing is total crap but because I'm a perfectionist in this area of expertise (Among others. Sadly cleaning isn't one of them.). Meaning that it is very very hard for me to let anyone see my work unless I'm 100% satisfied with it which, well, does hardly ever happen.
But I think it would be fun to share my recent drawings with you and be able to see how I improved over the year.
I hope you're as excited as I am! Let's start with week 1 and 2 of 2015:

Since the new year started on a Thursday, week 1 was a short one. This is the very first outfit drawing that I made, actually. This is what I wore to work on the second day of the year.

To be honest, I don't like this one very much. This doesn't look like the outfit I was wearing at all. And obviously I can't draw hands. But then, who can really?

This one is one of my favorites so far. Great coloring job on those pants, Kathie! *giving myself a pat on the back* And I'm very happy with how great that Hogwarts shirt came out!

Yup, seems like I'm slowly getting the hang of it (although braids: not so easy). Bought proper paper to draw on and was surprised what a big difference it makes!

I'm looking forward to posting more outfit drawings maybe once a week if I can keep the pace.
How about your resolutions? How are you holding up?

View all WIWT posts here.

Coffee Date | outfit

1.shirt/mango 2.jeans/pieces 3.loafers/river island 4.cardigan/mango 5.watch/asos 6.shoulder bag/the white pepper 7.earrings/people tree 8.notebook/oh snap 9.coffee to go mug/amazon 10.hat/bailey of hollywood

I feel like the sooner the sun sets, the more coffee I need to keep my eyes open. Please tell me you feel the same (otherwise I'll have to consider a serious coffee addiction)!? Coffee dates have been a regular thing lately - sometimes with the boyfriend, sometimes with friends and many times with myself. This is what I would probably wear to all three of those coffee dates. I do own the loafers in real life and I am in love. When I'm not wearing my chelsea boots these are the shoes you'll probably see me in. And a super cozy cardigan with integrated scarf? Yes please!

Rainy Days | outfit

1.shirt/h&m 2.dress/tommy hilfiger 3.cardigan/h&m 4.boots/hunter 5.socks/asos 6.umbrella/ilse jacobsen 7.watch/asos 8.earrings/christ

Ever since we came back from France, the weather has been... meh. Meaning cold, rainy and overcast. We're at a point where I get up in the mornings when it's still dark outside and I hate it. H a t e  it. I sure feel like slipping into sweats and ugly sweaters every morning. So maybe,  just maybe, dressing in happy colors will enhance my mood in the mornings? I do have the distinct feeling the polka dot sweater wants to be my friend.
This is an outfit I would wear while dancing in the rain and splish-splashing through puddles.

Goodbye Summer | outfit

1.t-shirt/nümph 2.jeans skirt/kookai 3.check shirt/pepe jeans 4.ankle boots/dorothy perkins

5.bag/anna field 6.necklace/zara 7.socks/falke

It's time for a new series called 'What do I want to wear today?'. I was thinking about some kind outfit posts for a while now, but since I don't feel confident enough to post actual photos of me wearing those outfits, this seems to be a great solution (for now). It also leaves me the option of outfits I want to wear but don't actually own. I hope you enjoy it!

This first outfit is something I would wear a lot these days. It's one of those 50% summer/50% autumn outfits featuring layers, warmer colors and closed shoes. I would wear this outfit every day - it's super comfy and casual and just perfect for running errands or meeting friends for a quick coffee. Add tights and maybe a scarf (Is it really scarf time again?) when it gets colder and this outfit can last well into autumn.

DIY: Melon Espadrilles

Ahoi! Writing a DIY tutorial for espadrilles seems strangely out of place today, since Berlin has been forced to fluffy cardigans and closed shoes these past few days. We're missing summer very much. But if you're one of those lucky ones, living in a warmer place or planning a trip to a warmer place (like we do!), this tutorial is for you. Everybody else is welcome to pin for next summer.

For a pair of melon espadrilles you will need:

A pair of espadrilles soles (I bought these from Prym)
green and pink fabric
green thread (something sturdy like bakers twine)
needle
scissors
many many pins
Taylor's chalk
fabric glue
a sewing machine
black fabric paint
a melon seed stamp (made mine from an old eraser)

I used the pattern that came with the espadrilles soles. I just had to cut it out and trace onto the fabric with Taylor's chalk. Easiest thing in the world. You need two green and two pink pieces for the front and back part each. Then trace the soles on green fabric as well. Cut with a seam allowance of about 1cm.

Stamp all the pink pieces with a black melon seed pattern and let dry.

Place all the pink pieces on matching green pieces, right sides facing. Pin and sew them together. Leave a few centimeters open to turn them right sides out.

After turning, stitch up the opening and iron the pieces flat. You can do it in the way I did, with a bit of green showing at the sides that will be connected to the soles, but that's totally optional. Add a seam along the edges that will be around the shoe opening.

Now we're assembling the shoe! First, the soles. I simply glued the fabric on and cut away any excess fabric after it had dried. When pinning the back piece around the sole, start with pinning the middle of the fabric to the middle of the heel and then work your way around to both sides.

Continue with the front. Here you start with the parts farthest away from the tip of the shoe. The back and the front part should overlap about 2 cm. Work your way from both sides to the tip. You will see that you have to much fabric in the front but that's intended (making room for your toes here).
You can see very nicely in the picture above that I used very very cheap pins haha! I really don't know why I still keep them, there's not one straight pin left.

The last step is sewing everything together. Sadly I was so consumed with it, I forgot to take pictures but it's really easy. You go around the sole with a blanket stitch and up the sides with a simple back stitch and you're done!

Congratulations, you just made a pair of shoes!