I’m sure you have already found that the Dad in your life is rather hard to buy for and even harder to handmake items for! We’ve been through the socks, ties and chocolates phase. The handmade cards and egg carton monsters were great when my kids were small! But wouldn’t it be great to make something he can really use and get to enjoy for a long time? This is where hand felted slippers come in!
A project like this can be done in a group working with your children if they are a good age to join in. And how lovely for Dad to have something from his little ones. Of course the big ones might manage to make these on their own with some guidance, or perhaps this is just something you want to make for your elderly father to keep him warm and remind him just how loved he is! Whatever the Father, however young, old, active, manly he is, I’m sure he will appreciate the time and effort that goes into making a gift like this.
I came across a couple of sites that I thought would be useful in creating a project like this. The first one gives you the full step by step, so have a read through and get an idea of how it’s all done. The second one just happens to be a guy project which gives you some great ideas for making the ‘lasts’ you will build your slipper around, and shows a couple of styles that your recipient might like. The last link gives you another step by step for making the slipper a different way so I hope that the 3 together will give you a well rounded impression of how you could make this project work for you and your unique style of crafting.
This first one, over at Felt Magnet, also gives you some great info on making your slippers using a cheap pair of beach shoes as your ‘lasts’. A great idea if you might want to make a few of these and in different sizes for different people. They also work directly on the shoe, so no bubble wrap etc which is a bit different.
A full step by step is included here and you can find that page by clicking the link here.
Over at The Tin Thimble they have a quick blog post from a day spent creating manly slippers together! You get a great idea for making your own lasts as you can see in the picture here. The lasts are used to shape the slipper on once you have felted the ‘fabric’ of the slipper. You could make these and then use them following the instructions above from Felt Magnet to create the slippers.
To find the link to The Tin Thimble just click here.
This last page has a great step by step for creating another style of slipper using a template as well as lasts. Really well thought out and easy to follow I think it gives you some great tips and advice to help you come up with an amazing gift for Dad this year.
The project can be found over at Instructables.com and you can find the link here.
However you decide to make slippers I hope it goes well for you and that you are proud of your results! The Dad in your life already knows how much love you put into everything you make, so sharing that with him will be a gift in itself!
Happy felting!