Make your own Roman Sandals
All our sandal soles were made from 3mm. MDF (hardboard would do). We also used cork tiles and leather scraps.
1. Draw round your feet on the MDF. Leave about half a centimetre all round for fixing.
2. Cut the soles out with a jigsaw or fretsaw. Cut 2 matching shapes from cork tiles.
3. Cut 2 long thongs, about 3mm wide and 1 metre long, from the leather scraps. Cut round in a flat spiral from one edge.
4. Cut out 2 heel pieces and 4 side pieces as shown in the drawing. Cut the holes in them with a craft knife.
5. Put the sole piece right way up on a thick pad of cardboard. With a staple gun, fix the leather to the MDF with a row of staples, about 3mm from the edge. Turn the sole over and bend the staples flat with pliers.
6. Stick the cork tile sole shapes to the sandals using a glue gun.
7. Thread the thong through the holes.
We made several different designs of sandal. Lepidina's sandals (on the right) have a triangle of leather, stapled at the sides and attached with a stitched toe thong. They are decorated with gold marker.
Flavius' sandals (left) have holes drilled all around the sole and a flat piece stapled at the front. They were the hardest to fit!
