Flip-Flop Update
Posted by Ashley 
32 Comments
Here’s a follow-up to the interchangeable flip-flop post here…….
That was a crazy day and looks like I left a few things out.
First of all, I bought all of that ribbon at Michael’s.
Also, I glued the flowers and bows to the flip-flops………I didn’t sew them.
Next, I don’t have pictures to show the process of the black ruffle flip-flop, but all I did was make the ribbon ‘V’ with the velcro sewn to the bottom side. Then I made another ‘V’ shaped ribbon out of the same black ribbon but madethe length of the ribbon, twice as long as it needed to be to fit on the flip flop. Then I made a basting stitch from the point of the ‘V’ down to one of the ends and left the threads long. Then I made a whole separate stitch starting at the tip of the ‘V’ again, but then down the other end of the ‘V’. Then I pulled the top threads for each basting stitch and created a gather. (Need more help with this concept? Visit this post here.) Then I adjusted the gather to fit evenly right on top of the ‘V’ shaped ribbon with the velcro already attached. Then I stitched all of the layers together, right on top of my basting stitch…….making sure to back-stitch at both ends. That’s it. (Sorry for no pictures.)
Next, the green flower on the zebra ribbon.
(***Please note that there was no science to my method, but I’ll show you exactly what I did. You may have to adjust and adapt as you go.)
All I did was use a piece of scrap knit that was about 15 inches long by 2 inches wide.
I bunched up one end…
…and placed some hot glue on it.
Then I tucked the end under and pressed it under the strip of knit, to start the center of my flower.
Then I twisted the loose end just slightly…
……and then added a little dab of glue as I tucked this section around and then under the center.
Then I twisted a little bit more of the loose end (only slightly)…..
….and then added another dab of glue as I attached it right to the flower. (only use a dab of glue at a time….because it sure is easy to make a mess with hot glue if you use too much.)
**As you can see, sometimes I put the twisted section kind of under the edge of the flower, sometimes along the side, and other times a bit over the top. Just play around with it.
Then I continued this process…..
Until I got to the very end and tucked the end under the bottom.
Then I cut a piece of felt just a bit smaller than the flower and glued it to the bottom of the flower. This will keep all of the flower together and keep it from pulling apart.
That’s it.
Every flower will kind of look different but just keep at it and they will look just fine.
Lastly, the black fluffy flower on the toddler flip-flops.
I used some no-fray chiffon….but you could also use tulle, or even knit or cotton.
First I cut squares that were maybe 2.5 x 2.5 inches. And I cut maybe 16-20 of them.
Then I folded each square in half and then in half again…..so into quarters. And I held it by the bottom corner fold.
And then cut a petal shape out of the top of the chiffon…..
…….so that when I opened it up, it looked like a 4 petal flower. (You could just cut out flowers….but this technique took a lot less time. And none of them were perfect or exactly the same size as the next one. So don’t worry about that.)
Here’s the whole group of them.
Then I folded a flower in half, then in half again…..just like the original shape that I had it in to cut it out. And I placed 2 of them together at the bottom tip and made a few stitches in the bottom to keep them together.
Then I added 2 more at a time and attached them to the first….using a few stitches to keep them in place.
I went around and around the flower, adding 2 more at a time…..creating a fullness to the flower.
Until it looked full enough. (Now there may be an easier way to do this and you don’t even have to curve the pieces into a flower shape. I just liked the curve of each piece, making it look more like a petal.)
And not only can you add it to a flip-flop…….it makes a great accessory to add to a hair clip.
Nice and sweet.
Related posts:
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Baby Legs -
Mod Podge Clips -
Repurposing – Boy’s Lounge Pants -
Gift Card Cozy -
Little Girl Romper {"What Would You Make" Challenge}
Another tip!
I made these for my triplet nieces (and their little sister) birthday this past weekend. My store was out of the sew on velcro so I grabbed the sticky stuff. Big mistake. It is impossible to cut through and basically a big pain.
It took me half the night to make 8 pairs but they did turn out super cute! I bought shoes for myself and my daughter but I decided to hold off until I could find some sew in velcro!
thanks for the update! i am definitely going to try these! and i am just dying to do the mod podge shoes. dying, i tell ya!
thanks for this! How did you attach the flowers to your "V" ribbons? Sew? Or just use the glue, or both?
oh – and did you find some velcro that has a lot, the only one I can find is just 12 inches long. :(
Totally know your pain with that technology friend of ours! Hope it works out soon!
Too cute! I love your ideas you are so creative!!
~Morgan
http://meetvirginiaandroo.blogspot.com/
http://www.etsy.com/shop/MeetVirginiaShop
how did you attach the black flower and the silk flowers to the flip flops.
eakuban…..I added that detail towards the top of the post. Snuck right by you! I just used hot glue. Good luck! :)
So cute… thanks for giving the details. I can't wait to make these for my little girls, and me of course!
Ashley, those interchangeable flip flops are soooo amazing. I've never seen anything like them and of course had to feature them!!
so adorable! i love these little 'flowers'…you are so talented!
So cute! My girls will love these…and so will I. I love the flowers too!
Awesome as always. I love your clear, beautiful, and easy to follow pictures.
I made your felt Mr. Potato head. My boys love it. Thanks for the great ideas. Keep them coming!
Thanks for explaining! I love learning how to do new things!
What kind of clip did you use to make the black flower into a hair accessory? How did you attach it?
Thanks!
Once again, "WOW!"
Where did you buy the little girl flip flops with the back strap???
I found the little girl flip-flops at Kmart. Good luck!
Ah! I've been looking for a way to make something like these and was going to email you for help. They're great!! Thank you so much for sharing!
We are making the flower clips right now. We love it. But we are wondering about how you went from adding the flowers 2 at a time to your ending big flower. It seems kind of flat. Did you fluff them up? Did you add a few together? Thanks for your help.
Hey Meg, sorry about the confusion with that black flower. I should have added another photo. But you just keep adding those folded up pieces, 2 at a time, by the tip. Keep all of the tips together and keep making little stitches to add the 2 pieces at a time. Hope that helps!
Ashley
Great update. I will be making these for my sisters b-day soon. Such a cute idea! And I'll pair these flip flops with a homemade swimsuit cover-up (hopefully). :)Thanks!
My friend and I are making some of these for a group of women for a cruise we are going on. We are not going to use the velcro…we are just going to glue the ribbon directly on the flip flop (We are using Old Navy 2 for $5 FF's). I did want to mention a shortcut I figured out for the ruffle flip flop. We made ours black w/a cow print ruffle (It's for a Chick-fil-A group) and we cut our black ribbon the length needed to cover the flip flop strap, then the cow print twice that long…we then folded them in half and put them together so we could sew the "v" and attach them together at the same time. Doing this cut 3 steps into 1!! (doing separate "v"s on each ribbon, then attaching them together)
Instead of doing a basting stitch to create the gather, we got elastic that was thinner than our ribbon (We used 3/8" ribbon and 1/4" elastic) and sewed it to the cow print in the same manner you would sew the basting stitch. The elastic creates the gather for you and saves LOTS of time! In just a few short hours today, we were able to cut both sets of ribbon, sew them together AND sew on the elastic for 20 pairs of flip flops. All we have left to do now is glue the ruffle ribbon down (or sew it, but I think super-glue will be faster!) and then glue the ribbons to the flip flop. Thanks so much for the great idea…and hopefully my little tips will help someone.
These are great tips! Just curious, what kind of glue do you use to attach your stuff to the actual flip flop? Someone may have already asked this, so I'm sorry for the repetition.
Thanks!
OK, I clearly read WAY too fast! Just saw that you used the Stick 'N' Seal. Thanks for the great idea's!
so where do ya find the tutorial on the flip flops people keep mentioning, V and ruffle ones, sounds cute, guess i misse that one, gotta try these flowers!
Miranda, the flip-flop tutorial is found here: http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2010/03/interchangeable-flip-flops.html
Enjoy!
Thanks so much for sharing I saw these for $50 a pair and extra sets of ribbone were $15.I cannot wait to get started. They will make great gifts
very nice,i enjoy it very much.would like to get more ideas
thank you
nomi el