Learning with a huge virtual community of sandal makers is a fun way to explore adventurous courses on the art of sandal making course. There are various pre-recorded videos that you can download and play back, and you can always sign up for creative Zoom sessions to learn some real-time, hands-on techniques. Of course, there are campus-based classes to pursue as well, but with most of the educational media moving online these days, it is inspiring to watch enthusiastic learners build bridges – and march across them in their new sandals!
Sandal making is a very inventive hobby, brimming with handcrafted potential for DIY projects. There is such a massive scope for refreshing ideas that make a welcoming change to studying from courses. You get to learn how to repurpose old materials into various sandal accessories, and this encourages you to think outside the box and play with new options. The ability to craft your own sandals has the undeniable thrill of discovery along the journey, as you find different ways of improvising everyday objects. It walks the fine line between shoemaking and fashion design, and both of these talents inspire artistic and creative possibilities that you seek as a DIY sandal maker. From simple, minimalist sandals to more elaborate designs, sandal-making courses offer a good starting point to turn every ground you walk on into a personal runway.
Sandal making supplies
There are various tools and resources you will need to gather before starting a sandal-making project. While different sandal making courses have different requirements, there are some basic supplies that are common to all classes. Sandal Making Course, and so you might encounter opportunities where you need to use existing, everyday objects and repurpose them into new sandals. The following tools are a common sight in any sandal-making workshop, and some of them can be purchased as specialty toolkits:
- leather soles and midsoles
- precut sandal heels
- a set of nails
- leather materials
- shoe glue
- sole snips
- serrated scissors
- buckles and rivets
- metal tacks
- robber soling
- sanding and finishing equipment
- hole punching devices
- sewing needles
- wax thread
- lacing chisel
- tracing pencils
- mix-and-match patterns
- leather straps
- screw-back studs
- foam-rubber outsoles
- scratch awl
Sandal making courses
The following are some exceptional sandal making courses on the art of sandal making, and they are delivered as virtual classes, prerecorded videos, or in-person sessions. They offer engaging learning environments and are all organized by passionate shoemakers and sandal makers who have not only launched their own brands, but have broken down their experience into learner-friendly milestones. In the fast-paced fashion industry, these sandal making courses are designed to slow things down to a self-paced journey for apprentices to enjoy and look forward to.
Skillshare – Sandal Making 101
A beginner-level course
Sandal Making 101 is a course on the ever-growing online learning community of Skillshare. Organized by Rachel Corry, the course focuses on 3 basic skills of patterning, leatherworking, and shoe construction. It requires just a few tools to get started, and you can use your own foot measurements for styling and patterns. The beginner-friendly objectives are geared towards anyone with an affinity for DIY projects, fashion design, shoemaking, and leather crafts. Since sandal making course offers good entry-level skills for further shoemaking ideas, this course is a stimulating class project to kick start your creative journey.
Simple leather sandals
The course videos teach you how to handcraft your own leather sandals with lace ties and rubber soles. With techniques for creating casual footwear that uses gender-neutral designs, you can work on self-inspired ideas to showcase your talent. The collaborative sandal making course includes sharing pictures, sketches, assembled pieces, and final sandal selfies with the rest of your virtual classmates. The sandal making course curriculum is divided into bite-sized lessons that take you across sandal-making materials, tools, paper patterns, leather tracing, and draping straps. There are practice sessions with holes and slots, joining and hammering, and finishing touches to give your sandals a professional look. You also get to work with skiving devices for buffing and sanding the leather edges to remove imperfections along the surface.
Udemy – DIY LeatherCrafting: Making Leather Sandals
A comprehensive leathercraft course
Organized by Timur Kazantsev, DIY Leather Crafting offers a productive insight into sandal making as a virtual class on Udemy. Students dive right into the art and skills of making their own leather sandals with unique forms that define their personal, signature brands. The sandal making course also explores options for selling your sandal collections on reliable online marketplaces. It addresses the skill levels of both beginners and experts, so there is something for everyone to learn and discover. The instructors – a father and son duo – also guide you in terms of the required tools and places from where they can be purchased.
Sandal making outcomes
The intriguing sandal making course structure is quite sequential and unrushed, allowing you to fully understand each stage before moving to the next. You get to work with sandal templates and leather tracing, and there are opportunities that expose your skillset to different leather types for sandal bases and accessories. This helps with learning to use compatible and durable products from expert instructors who have been in the field for a considerable time. They teach you how to trim, glue, and varnish your leather before stitching the pieces and adding buckles. Apart from making your own sandals, the course guides you towards shaping up your own side business in this versatile hobby of leather crafting.
Rachel Sees Snail Shoes – Portland, Oregon
A sandal-making hub
The creator of the Sandal Making 101 Skillshare course discussed above has her own sandal-making portal where she shares fun-filled programs and hands-on practices. Rachel has her self-inspired production line and designs special collections of sandals that reflect the wearer’s personality. With a passion to empower people to craft their own shoes, Rachel wrote a complete book on the specific art of sandal making to give the hobby some much-needed spotlight – without being overshadowed by other forms of shoemaking. Her studio offers dynamic learning opportunities, and you can purchase sandal-making kits, leather supplies, and Rachel’s handmade, fashionable pairs of sandals as well.
Sandal making workshops
Following COVID restrictions, the studio hosts 1-on-1 classes instead of group sessions. The PRIVATE SANDALMAKING CLASS (ANYTIME) focuses on designing, adjusting, precision-cutting, and assembling a pair of custom sandals for your feet. The course is inclusive of all the materials you might need, so you just have to turn up with your design samples. It uses a streamlined approach to take you across different learning outcomes at your own pace.
The FABRIC SLIDES! ZOOM w TOPSTITCH STUDIO – MAY 2 course is an exclusive project for making quilted fabric upper sandals. It will form a great collaboration for sewing enthusiasts who prefer the customizable freedom of fabric footwear. The course is designed as a Zoom class, and all the necessary sandal-making kits will be shipped to your doorstep beforehand. These include rubber soles, leather footbeds, sandal glue, and miscellaneous tools like knives, leather hole punches, and scratch awls. There are also patterns and instructions for using two fabrics to create the upper sandal straps. Since it will be a virtual class, participants get to pick their own fabrics at home, so everyone works on different colors, designs, textures, and diverse end results. Once you choose your oval, round, or square-toe sole shape, Rachel will guide you through the cutting, assembling, and finishing steps.
You can also access prerecorded sandal-making videos from this trailblazing artist. The RUBBER-SOLED SANDALMAKING VIDEO + SOURCING LISTS is an hour-long video for training viewers on how to make rubber-soled sandals. It is a very beginner-friendly learning material to understand the secrets behind durable leather sandals attached to foamy rubber outsoles. The video makes use of a toe-loop sandal style, and you can adapt the same principles to match any sandal style that you are comfortable with.
The HEELED SANDALMAKING VIDEO + SOURCING LISTS module is another prerecorded video that takes you a step further than the previous video. It is a 100%-leather-oriented course in which you will learn to work with heavy leather outsoles and stacked leather heels. To get the best out of both videos, you can choose to buy materials and toolkits from the studio, or work with your own tools at home.
A good starting point
Sandal making is considered by experts to be an ideal first step before you can pursue any form of shoemaking endeavor. Since sandal construction is so uncomplicated and minimalistic, it focuses on basic layers of leather heels, soles, upper straps, and optional elements to accessorize your collections. Once you become familiar with this framework, you can add any layers on top of it to make shoes, mule designs, and even boots. Sandal making is just the springboard leap you need to dive into the art of shoemaking talents.
Courses like those discussed above provide essential techniques to make your own sandals, and there are often unique programs teaching you to deconstruct old pairs of sandals and revamp them into newer designs. Driven by a global community of aspiring leather-smiths, this ambitious hobby opens doors to self-empowerment where you thrive by achieving something spectacular at your own hands – and feet! The art of sandal making is full of metaphorical tributes; you walk the extra mile and take a stroll down memory lane, leaving a trail of footsteps for inspired shoemakers to follow.
