I have so many more Craftcation stories to share with you! Instead of starting from the top, I’ll start from the bottom – I made shoes, espadrilles to be more precise. 

This sewing class with Melissa Quaal of A Happy Stitch was my first class at Craftcation. After a road trip through Ojai, I checked into the Craftcation hotel, grabbed my conference badge, ran back and forth to the car and my hotel room to unload all the crafty goodies, and headed straight to class. Ready! Melissa made the cutest craft kits and goody bags for us. Even the tag with our shoe size was adorable.

I had only worked with a sewing pattern once before so I was excited that I got into this sewing class to get more practice in (with adult supervision!).

Melissa walked us through each step of the process, sharing all of her sewing secrets, too – like how to cut fabric with weights and a rotary cutter (I’m so impressed!). I was too scared to cut this way for this project since the fabric pieces were small so I stuck with scissor cutting.

I chose to make wedges; others picked flats, and still others (the more advanced students) put their own spin on the patterns, like adding peep toes. I brought leftover canvas from an indigo dye session and a print from Rifle Paper co. The wedge bottoms were already assembled and made from jute.

We used interfacing for this project, and much like my making pockets experience, the whole ‘sewing the straps on the inside’ concept was very confusing. But I made it through! We used both a sewing machine and hand stitches to complete this project. By the end of class I had one shoe complete, but I stayed after to finish the other shoe (knowing me I wouldn’t have finished otherwise…), and then I had a photoshoot on the way back to my hotel room.

So fun! Thank you to Melissa for sharing this craft with me! And look, espadrilles buddies!

FOMO? Melissa sells her espadrilles kit online and they come in flat, wedge, and kids sizes. Also, she’s the coolest so if she’s teaching in your area you should definitely take her class!