MOD FOOT FORM

I like homemade slippers – my family likes homemade slippers … and I sell homemade slippers at local Winter Bazaars.

Last year, Bob & I noticed that our slippers were getting holes in them; this never happened before (the yarn would thin significantly over time due to wear & wash) in any other house we lived in - but HERE, they were wearing out faster than I could make new pairs; so we started paying attention to what the issue could be. I mean, I would make us new pairs … and they WOULD HAVE HOLES IN THEM IN 2 WEEKS TIME! We finally decided that it had to be the kitchen floor: that floor is stone flooring, and the tiles had rough edges and rough design: very beautiful – but hell on our slipper bottoms. So, I put non-skid footing on them, and they last; literally until wear & wash thins the yarn to disintegration. All I use for this protection is ‘Tulip Puff Paint’ – it is spendy ($17 for a 6-pack), so I don’t do this for the slippers I sell: if people want that added protection, they can add that themselves, ‘cause for sure they will bitch about the extra cost if I do it for them; and I can’t eat the added expense myself: homemade stuff costs $$$,and I need to recoup that expense.

I made a new style of knot slippers the other night, and know – from past experience – that I will need to protect the bottoms when I wear them. So, I made a set of MOD Foot Forms to stretch my slippers on and coat with puff paint ;-)

MOD FOOT FORM. Styrofoam, plastic wrap & foil.

MOD forms are rough-form; they are made out of recycled Styrofoam:

MOD FOOT FORM made to stretch knit slippers for non-skid application.

The Styrofoam is thick and pretty sturdy, so I traced my feet on it – cut the shape out with a serrated steak knife over a Lucite cutting board (now I need to buy a new cutting board because this one is nicked pretty bad from the jabbing knife point) …

HOW TO MAKE MOD FOOT FORM. Styrofoam, cutting board, serrated knife, plastic wrap & foil.

… and wrapped the Styrofoam forms in plastic wrap (to keep any flaking foam balls off my knitted items) – and added a layer of tin foil wrapping over the plastic wrap (to keep the puff paint from bleeding through & drying my slipper top & bottom together):

HM KNIT SLIPPER STRETCHED ON MOD FOOT FORM.

SLIPPER WITH PUFF PAINT APPLICATION.

NON-SKID FOOTING APPLIED & DRYING.

How the slippers look after the undercoating dries thoroughly.

How the slippers look on the feet ...