How to Make Barefoot Sandals for Babies

It was confirmed in my second ultrasound that we really are having another GIRL!  Although I was certain I was having a boy, we are very excited for Kinley to have a little sister and now I am feeling motivated to make them a bunch of matching girly stuff.  My neighbor inspired me to make these barefoot sandals the other day (also called footless sandals), when I saw how easy it was to make them!  My first pair probably took me 15 minutes to make, but that was because I was learning to make the flowers at the same time.  If you already have the flowers made, you could make these in a couple of minutes!  I was surprised to see these all over Etsy for anywhere from $8-25 especially considering how easy they are to make.  So here we go…

How to make barefoot sandals for your little girls with elastic:

Using Elastic to Make Simple Barefoot Sandals for Baby

Things you need:

• flowers, jewels, or whatever you are wanting to decorate them with
• Hot glue or needle and thread
• Elastic

It’s best if you have your baby’s foot available to measure the elastic around, but if she is not born yet (or you are doing them for a gift) you can try measuring around a crib shoe (and make it tight around), or look for some measurements online.

I used hot glue to put mine together, but if you are doing these for a very active toddler and you know she will be pulling on them constantly, needle and thread might work better.  So far mine have held up fine.

You will basically be making a figure 8, and gluing/sewing two spots together–that’s it!

Measure your first loop around baby’s foot and sew or hot glue where the elastic crosses (where my thumb is).

You’ll then want to finish the figure 8 with one more stitch/dab of glue.

Then Glue your flower on and you are done!

Now you have no excuse to pay for these suckers now that you know how to make barefoot sandals for less than a buck!  If you already have experience making flowers and bows, yours will be much cuter than mine as I am just a beginner  For my next pair of barefoot sandals, I will probably attach velcro on the sandal and the flowers, so that I only have to make a few elastic sandals that are interchangeable with flowers according to what my baby is wearing that day.

*Update.  I did this and it worked.  I purchased some velcro dots/circles and used them to make interchangeable headbands and barefoot sandals.  If you stick with generic white elastic, you can pretty much switch out any color of flowers that you want.

These are SO easy. You can buy these shabby flowers for 50 cents or less, and all you do is glue the flower to the elastic!

If you have not made fabric flowers before, see the end of this post for a video on how to make a bunch of various kinds for your barefoot sandals.  If you don’t want to make any, you can buy some adorable shabby flowers (like the ones pictured above) for 50 cents or less.

Where to buy elastic:

I’ve had a hard time finding elastic in colors other than generic white or black, so I asked my friend who owns an Etsy shop for little girl bows/headbands and she recommended Fleurist Supply.  They have elastic by the yard (you don’t need more than that to make a pair of barefoot sandals) and they have them in every color!

While I had my hot glue gun out, I decided to add some bling to these flip-flops as well.  I bought them at a yard sale because again, I was sure I was having a boy next.  Since I’m not, they needed a little “girl flare” to them

How to Make T-shirt barefoot sandals

Also…I came across these very cute barefoot sandals at the Creative Muster and they are made out of a T-shirt!  If you are willing to spend just a little bit more time (not much), these could potentially cost you nothing to make and they are very cute!  Visit her blog for the full tutorial.  If you learn better through video, I have also included a video tutorial for making T-shirt flowers.

Making barefoot Sandals with a T-Shirt is Very Easy!

Video Tutorials

Here are some different flowers you can make:

For those of you with girls, what have been your favorite things to make for them?

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