Sew House Shoes for Summer – DIY Slippers

Sew house shoes for warm weather!

Hey y’all – I don’t like to wear shoes around the house. Especially living in a hot climate, my ideal would be to go barefoot. But with two dogs and two active boys, there always seems to be dirt in my house, and that ends up on my feet. So I made these summer house shoes for myself to keep the dirt off my feet without really feeling like I’m wearing shoes.

I love that these shoes could basically be made from scraps. I used less than a fat quarter of fabric for them, as well as some quilt batting scraps. And I’m sharing a free pattern as well as the tutorial to make these!

To make your own, you’ll need

• 1/4 yard of fabric for the outer slipper. I used quilting weight cotton, and I bought it a long time ago so I’m pretty sure it’s out of print.
• 1/4 yard of non skid fabric, similar to this fabric (affiliate link)
• 1/4 -1/3 yard of Peltex (affiliate link) or ultra firm stabilizer, depending on foot size.  Get the sew in kind, not the fusible kind. If your feet are larger than a women’s size 8 or so, I’d get more Peltex.
• Quilt batting scraps

Note that you’ll have plenty of left over non skid fabric if you buy it by the yard because it’s generally 60 inches wide. So you can make a few pairs of soles for these out of that amount.

The pattern is a women’s size 6, for a foot length of 9 inches.  I’ve got instructions for resizing in the directions and in the video.  To get this pattern, click your preferred option from the buttons below as a newsletter subscriber or gallery access pass purchaser. Note that the free version of the pattern does not have printable instructions.

Please note that all my free patterns are licensed for personal use only (no selling items made from this unless you purchase it) and by downloading you are agreeing to this license.

To sew these, watch the video tutorial below. If it won’t load below for some reason, you can also watch on YouTube here. And if you prefer a written tutorial, keep scrolling for that.

To resize the pattern, first either measure the length and width of the person’s foot, or use google to find a foot length chart; there are a lot out there. Then cut the pattern on the horizontal lines to lengthen the or shorten the slipper, and cut on the vertical lines to widen or narrow it.

Once your pattern is the correct size, cut the following, making sure to mirror image your cuts so you have a right and a left  foot:

• 2 toes of fabric and 2 toes of lining (you can use your outer fabric as lining if you’re using quilting cotton)
• 2 soles of fabric
• 2 soles of non skid fabric
• 2 toes of quilt batting with the seam allowances cut off
• 4 soles of Peltex with the seam allowances cut off

Place the toes and lining toes right sides together and sew the top and bottom edges. Then clip the curves, turn the toes right side out and press. Clip off the extra fabric from the seam allowances.

Insert the quilt batting between the layers of the toe pieces. Take one sole, one toe, and one non skid sole. Place the toe on the sole, matching the notches, with both fabrics right side up.

Place the non skid sole right sides together with the sole/toe piece and match the notches. Stitch around the outer edges, leaving a 2 1/2 inch gap between the bottom of the toe band and the heel on the outsole side. Clip curves.

Turn shoe right side out and finger press edges. Fold and insert a Peltex sole, then repeat, so that there are 2 soles inside. Finger press the seam allowances of the gap to the inside, then stitch around the heel to close the gap and keep the fabric from shifting. Backstitch at the beginning and end of this topstitching. If the non-skid fabric doesn’t want to feed through your sewing machine, add a layer of tissue paper under it to help, then tear the tissue off after stitching.

That’s it – these are a pretty quick project from sewing to wearing. So slide them on and enjoy your clean feet.