Repair Your Flip Flops With Old Jeans

Give your old flip flops a new chance.

Despite belonging to the Instructables community from many years, admiring everyone who posts here, I had never made one myself... this is the first one and I hope it helps you.

All the material that I used in this project I already had in my house, I did not have the need to buy anything, however, some tools or materials that I used are probably not easy for others to have in their homes or it is dificult for them to obtain, therefore which I placed an alternative material / tool with which I also did tests to verify if it worked or not.

Without further ado, let's go to the Instructable.

Materials

.- Flip flops sole in good condition that can be repaired.

.- Old jeans seams.

.- Connections (brown unions) of air taps for aquariums or plastic swab sticks. You can also use the old strap ends from your flip flops if they are still in good shape.

Tools:

.- Scissors

.- Tweezers (needle holder) or needle-nose pliers (the serrated-nose ones will prevent the jean seam from slipping when pulled) or screwdriver or any other tool that can help you push or pull the jean seam through the seams sole holes.

.- Clothes iron

.- Wax paper

.- Thick needle

.- Thread.

.- Thimble.

.- Chalk for fabric or a pencil to mark.

A.- Cut the old structure of the flip flop and clean the soles.

B.- Take the measure the distance between point 1 (section between the fingers) and points 2 and 3 (section on the instep and midfoot), add the distances and add 6 to 10 cm of margin of error (in my case they were 38cm and I added 10cm for about 48cm). You will need twice this measurement, in my case a total of 96cm.

C.- From the old jeans, cut the seams, as fair as possible so that they do not fray over time. These seams will look like thick ribbons.

Without cutting the seam ribbon, make a mark on the ribbon with fabric chalk or pencil at the first 48cm and then at 96cm (if your ribbon is long enough). It doesn't matter if your seam is not enough for the two pieces, the important thing is that it is long enough to be able to make each piece individually.

A.- Once the soles are clean and the jean seams are cut and measured, thread it through the number 1 hole from the top to the bottom of the sole. I used a needle holder to hold the jean seam because this type of pliers has a latch to keep it closed so I was able to pull it through the holes without it coming loose. I only allowed a small amount of seam to stick out on hole 1.

Then with the needle holder I took the long part of the jean seam through hole 2 and passed the rest of the jean seam towards the bottom of the sole. (I never cut the ribbon).

I continued passing the seam ribbon from the bottom of the sole to the top through hole 3. And finally thread the tape back through hole 1 again from the top of the sole to the bottom.

I carefully adjusted the length of the strap so it wouldn't hurt my feet, not too tight or too loose.

Note 1: If you don't have a needle holder you can use a serrated nose pliers or a thin screwdriver and instead pull the seam through the gaps in the soles, you will use the screwdriver to push it through them.

If the strap ends of your flip flops are in good condition you can also use them and skip this step.

In my case, I made a kind of blunt tip "plastic nail" with the connection as follows.

A.- I placed the iron at medium high temperature face up, used a piece of waxed paper to protect the iron (preventing the plastic from sticking to it) and carefully heated one of the air valve connections (which I previously removed from the airtap). Since the connections are hollow I heat sealed one end to keep it from getting water when I will wash my flip flops. I flattened the other end a bit with the iron so that it would lie flat and not interfere when walking.

B.- Insert the connection between the two seam strips at the bottom of the sole, place waxed paper and iron again so that the soft plastic adheres to the threads of the seam strip.

Although my initial intention was to do this process in each of the flip flop's holes when I tried them on, the section of the straps that passed through holes 2 and 3 did not bother me, so I decided to leave it that way.

Note 2: If you do not have air keys, you can also use the plastic sticks from the cotton buds, removing all traces of cotton or the plastic sticks from the lolipops. This plastic is more resistant to the heat of the iron so it will take longer, but it is possible to get a "plastic nail".

A.- I cut the excess seams.

B.- I sewed the section that goes between the fingers. As the double seams are thick using the needle and double thread, I sewed the two seam strips that go between the toes up to 0.5mm above her foot.

Put Them On And Enjoy Them!