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How to Make Snuggly Slippers from Old Sweaters

January 27th, 2009 in sewing, restyle, gifts, crochet

cal patch, contributor

31 users recommend

Keep your feet warm with these cute slippers made from an old sweater.

Trace your foot to begin making the pattern.

Keep your feet warm with these cute slippers made from an old sweater.

Photo: Cal Patch

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My feet are always cold, so I'm constantly looking for nice slippers to wear. Unfortunately, most of the affordable ones I find are made from 100% synthetic materials, which means they're not environmentally considerate AND they make your feet sweat. Yuck! So I came up with this alternative to buying slippers: Make them out of old wool sweaters. Care to join me in stitching up a pair?

You'll need:

Some paper
A pen
Scissors
An old sweater (ideally a felted wool one)
Thread
Sewing machine
A scrap of yarn (worsted or smaller)
A crochet hook that suits your yarn

1. Make the pattern by tracing your foot onto a piece of paper.

Trace your foot to begin making the pattern.

Here's the tracing of my foot.

Clean up the shape around your toes so it's more of a smooth curve.

Smooth the shape into a curve.

Draw the shape of the opening where your foot will go in. It should begin about 3-1/2 inches from the toe end and follow the shape of the sides and heel about 1 inch in from the outer edge. The sides and heel should be a consistent width. Don't worry if the opening seems small; it will stretch.

Draw the opening.

Finally, I added a 1/4-inch seam allowance around the outer edge of the foot shape, but next time I'll probably skip this step because my slippers came out a bit bigger than I'd like. Sweaters are stretchy, so it's better to make the pattern small so that it hugs the foot.

Add a 1/4-inch seam allowance if you want to.

Now cut out the pattern through two pieces of paper, and cut the hole out of one. Simple!

Here are your finished pattern pieces: the sole and the upper.

2. Cut out your pieces. Pin the patterns onto the sweater and cut two of each shape.

This is the sweater I'll be cutting up...

...and here are my cut-out pieces (there are two of each).

3. Sew the pieces together. Match up the two sole pieces with the two uppers, right sides together. Stitch around the outer edges at 1/4 inch. I used a narrow and short (2mm x 2mm) zigzag stitch to allow some stretch in the seam.

Seam the two pieces together around the outer edges, sewing at 1/4 inch.

Then I went around a second time with a three-step zigzag (set at 7mm wide by 2mm long), sewing both layers of seam allowance down to the sole piece. This will help reinforce the seam as well as keep the edges from fraying.

Stitch the seam allowances down to the sole.

The finished seam will look like this.

The slipper after sewing. Looks like my foot!

4. Crochet the edges. Make a slip knot, and join the yarn onto the heel edge of your slipper with a slip stitch.

Join yarn onto the slipper edge with a slip stitch to begin crocheting.

I used a size G hook and two strands of fingering-weight yarn. Chain two and work over the edge with one single crochet, chain one, and repeat around. Be sure to pierce the slipper at least 1/4 inch down from the edge to get a good hold on it, or the crochet will pull off eventually.

Work around the raw edge, alternating single crochets with chain stitches for a stretchy edging.

When you've gone around once, join to the second chain with a slip stitch, chain two, and repeat the same stitch pattern, working your single crochets into the chain-ones of the previous round. Repeat for the third round, but leave out the chains between every second stitch on the front third of the slipper, around the curve at the toe end, to decrease. At the end of the third round, finish off.

5. Make the strap. Try on the slipper to determine where you'd like to put the strap across. Also measure how long it needs to be to go across your foot and hold the slipper on. Join on yarn with a slip stitch at one of these points, and chain across the length you determined. Join at the other point with a slip stitch, then slip stitch again one stitch over from join, and single crochet back across the chain. After working into the last chain, join back to the starting side and finish off. Weave in the ends.

Wasn't that easy? I might stitch some suede soles onto the bottoms for added longevity. You could also make the sole piece two layers thick. And just think of all the ways you could embellish these, and how fun they'd be if made out of striped or patterned sweaters! I don't think my toes will ever be cold again.

posted in: sewing, restyle, gifts, crochet, slippers, footwear

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Comments (10)

truff writes: I have been looking at slipper patterns for two or three days now and by far, your directions are the best to understand and most complete!

thank you
Posted: 7:28 am on November 8th

jazzyjen writes: Very, very cute! I just crocheted slippers and even though I used wool, I probably should have used a smaller size hook. They are really stretching out too much. An old wool sweater is the perfect thing, I think!
Posted: 1:16 pm on May 27th

ShayMarWood writes: Way cute! I wonder how useing a shoe insert would work for the sole? Sandwich it between the sweater and suede sole? It would give some support for the foot. Also, make the sole out of that no skid, rubbery shelf liner? Or use the bottoms from those ugly no skid socks the hospitals give to patients? Could even cut out shapes, how cute would paw prints be?
Posted: 11:03 am on March 3rd

samsstuff writes: Even if I didn't have old sweaters lying about, I might just have to go to a local thrift store & pick some up for this! Thanks for sharing!
Posted: 11:50 pm on February 14th

OrahLee writes: I LOVE LOVE these!!! I'm going to crochet over some clear elastic on the last round, then I won't have to mess with straps. These are a perfect project.
Posted: 2:19 pm on February 1st

gracie_girl writes: Good idea...You can use the cushioning rubber refrigerator liner stuff--I don't know what else you call it--to make non-slip soles.
Posted: 1:38 am on January 31st

gardenuh writes: Thank you, thank you, Cal Patch! Making a pattern from the foot's outline is exactly the solution I needed! I've got the felted sweater, the hard-to-fit feet living with me and am now set to roll! They'll be a valentine.
Gardenuh
Posted: 9:44 pm on January 28th

Toffy writes: Great recycling project. I have slippery tiled floors, so I think I would have to sew some non-slip stuff to the bottom of the sole before I could join these together. Another tip for using these if made in a thinner fabric, such as T-Shirt fabric. Travelers going thru TSA Security Checks at the Airport have to remove shoes and often socks. These if made in a thin fabric (t-shirt) can be slipped on quickly and easy to tuck into a carry-on bag. Couple years ago San Diego Airport supplied some foot covers, I kept mine and reused them a few times, but this idea would dress that up quite a bit. Great for gift giving as well.
Posted: 9:36 am on January 28th

krazycrafter writes: I saw someone made flip flops out of old yoga mats.
I am thinking, maybe that could also work for soles, I just need to find an old yoga mat.
Posted: 8:51 am on January 28th

bxmamanco writes: Very cute! Thanks for sharing....I guess one can do something similar with old socks that need a new bottom?
Posted: 11:41 pm on January 27th

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