(© James Mravec, all rights reserved)

Sorry - no thumbnails (yet).
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Step 1

First, I drew some conceptual sketches. A real quick drawing of a foot inside a slipper. I got a sense of relative size from this, which gave me the dimensions to use in the cuts. I then sort of guessed at the toe pattern shapes -- having done these kinds of things before, it wasn't that big of a deal, but I first started out by taking a pair of existing 3-toed slippers apart, and checking out the pattern. This pattern you see here is rather somewhat modified from that, but it's the same basic concept. Note the endpoint markings in the pattern sketch. These helped keep my head straight about what connected where, and what curves (segments) matched. For example, the top curve of the outer edge of the outer toe matched the top curve of the inner edge of that same toe. The bottom curve on the inner edge of the outer toe matched the bottom curve of the middle toe (both sides of the middle toe used the same pattern piece).

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Step 2

I drew an arrow on the fur backing to match the nap direction. I used the arrow as a reference frequently, just to make sure I wasn't screwing up. As it happened, I was doing so anyway. The messy outline in the picture was the first one I drew. The nap direction would have resulted in the fur pointing 'into' the toe, which would have made the seam more noticable in the final product. So I repositioned the pattern to take advantage of the nap direction in order to hide the seam later. The mark on the bottom right of the pattern is where the toe will connect with the sole. Usually I have that connection placed closer to the 'back' of the toe, but since the fur is kind of long, I didn't want it getting too dirty. The end result is a bit of the sole visible from the front when standing normally, but the sacrifice is worth it to preserve the fur on the tips of the toes.

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Step 3

When I first starting tracing the patterns out, I had placed them right next to each other. While this may save fabric, you want at least 1/4" extra space around the patterns to allow for easy, accurate sewing later. When redrawing patterns, you want to be careful about visibility of the ink you're using on the outside of the fur. This fur is particularly long / thick (about 1" long, and densely punched), so even black sharpie ink doesn't show.

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Step 4

The caption to this picture isn't very accurate. What I wanted to show here was that, when cutting duplicates of a pattern, you need to make sure you have the right orientation. One of these pieces will be the inside of the outside toe on the RIGHT side of the foot, and the other will be on the LEFT side (to become apparent later when putting them together, but I can tell you now that the top one will be on the inside right toe). The endpoints with the '2' subscript will be connected to the sole of the foot, and the others to the top. You can view a close-up of the endpoints, if you like.

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Step 5

Forgot to turn off the macro focus for the next few pictures. Here you see I made the nap-direction mistake a few times, but managed to correct for it without a problem BEFORE cutting. I use a plain ol' razorblade to cut my fur backing. It takes a bit of work, but surprisingly, it won't easily cut the fur itself, just the backing. Perhaps this blade just isn't all that sharp - it does seem to rip more than cut, but that's what you want. Some folks use an exacto knife. So long as you keep the cutting of actual fur fibers to a minimum -- this will ensure that you will have enough fiber to hide the seams.

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Step 6

This is the back of the cheetah patterned fur. Because of the camouflage effect, I was concerned about being able to see pattern markings and nap direction indicators. As it turned out, I cut one pattern in the wrong direction anyway. Maybe I'm just an idiot, but you should DOUBLE CHECK the nap direction for the piece you're cutting before you cut it. For each piece!

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Step 7

The pattern for the sole was also pretty much a guess. It could be made more narrow, which would result in a somewhat taller, narrower foot. I used to think that regardless of the circumference, the result would be basically tubular / cylindrical, but the width of the sole really does have an impact on the overall look. I decided to go with this look rather than a more triangular style, as I didn't want the toes to look overly big -- by making the rest of the foot mostly the same width. I made a pair of pink & green dragon slipperfeet (which I'm wearing now ;) using a similar sole patter, but the midlde toe was elongated. In both cases, the toes of the sole are triangular and pointed -- this has little effect on the resulting toe, as you'll see in the final shot of these (cheetah) slippers.Back to table of contents

Step 8

Both the white and the cheetah fur were cut in this area. Most of the 'fur lint' came from the cheetah fur, as I wasn't as careful in cutting that.

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Step 9

Here is the final pattern layout for one foot. On the right side of the sole is the top of the foot. I wanted the lighter part of the pattern to be on the very top, so I had to be careful about where I laid out the pattern on the fur backing. Thankfully, the pattern was duplicated on the back, so this wasn't terribly difficult. Keep in mind that the wide bottom part of that piece will be sewn to itself, forming the back of the ankle. So, the measure from the tips at the top to the bends at the bottom 'corners' needs to match the pattern on the sole where the toes end and the rest begins. Likewise, the measure of the 'v' on the top of the top-piece must match the measurement of the matching edges of the toe pieces. I was very careful this time to make sure all these measurements matched, to avoid deforming features in the final product. Even though the measurements are precise, slight variations in the process of sewing will result in some minor 'flaws', but fur tends to be very forgiving of small errors.

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Step 10

Not available yet - but I've completed the sewing of one foot, and it doesn't look too bad. Definitely better worn digitigrade than plantigrade, because, as expected, the toes curl up a bit because of where I decided the sole should join the tips of the toes. One of the soles I drew was too close to the other sole, so I drew it again a bit offset -- this resulted in an outline of the toe tips of the sole being visible in what would be the final product, since the fur backing of the sole is the visible part, and that's where I drew the pattern. I'm debating now whether to cut another sole, or just hope the camouflage effect will hide the markings sufficiently.