Sharon Raymond Directions and patterns for making loop sandals are in both of my sandal-making books (“how to make simple sandals” and “how to make the simplest sandals”) I have envisioned makers selling their loop sandals from a little shack by the sea – making the soles while customers watch (this is possible now because of the hand-operated Chinese stitching machine mentioned a few posts ago – you can bolt it to a table anywhere and start cranking out the soles!) The shop would also have a variety of local textile straps, leather straps – and maybe straps like these! to complete the sandals.
So these are made super-festive by using what-looks-like ethnic woven belt material sewed to a strip of thin leather for “loops” – then go crazy with beads, tassels and coins, all hanging from a vegetable-tanned leather thong.
For soling, I would use a piece of 9-10-ounce vegetable-tanned leather for a topsole and layers of natural rubber and car/truck inner tube (not tire) for the bottom sole. Before they are stitched together, they would be cemented together with non-toxic water-based cement ..so the entire sandal is earth-honoring, comfortable and beautiful!
