Embellished slides are the perfect DIY project to add some flair to your summer wardrobe! By customizing beach sandals with beads, sequins, or even ribbons, you can give your footwear a unique and stylish touch. These embellished slides are a fun way to express your creativity and stand out at the beach or pool. Get ready to turn heads and show off your one-of-a-kind style with these personalized summer sandals!
Choose your slides, and purchase grass skirt(s).
A basic, inexpensive slide will work great to make these beach sandals. You don’t have to worry too much about the color except for the sides and heel because the top of the slides will be covered with your raffia.
You can find grass skirts at Dollar Tree! But take note: they sell both adult and kid sizes. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of purchasing the kids’ size, so I ended up needing (2) of them. You could complete this project with just one of the adult-sized skirts
Cut first section of grass skirt. Knot both ends.
The picture below shows the first row of grass already applied, but I wanted you to see in this pic how I’ve scrunched up the grass on the right side in order to expose some naked portion of string beneath.
Lay a section of the grass skirt across the top of your slide so you can determine how long of a section of grass skirt you need to cut. The sections should span completely from one side of the shoe (almost ground level) to the other.
Make sure you have some of this exposed string on either end of the sections of the grass skirt before making a cut. At both ends of each section, you’ll need to tie a knot. The knot will prevent the raffia from falling off the shoe!!
Starting nearest toes of your beach sandals, glue first section of grass skirt to top of slide.
Fire up that hot glue gun, and glue down your first section of grass skirt. Start on the part of the shoe closest to where your toes go
You ’ll be able to see the two small knots on the very ends of the sections of grass skirt once glued in. Once the whole shoe is assembled though, those will virtually disappear.
Trim any excess string on either side of the shoe before moving on
Continue glueing sections of grass skirt to the slide.
One row at a time, move up the shoe toward the ankle end of the shoe. I spaced my sections about 3/4″ apart, and I ended up with a total of (4) total sections of raffia added to each shoe
Time for a trim.
If you’re a hairdresser, you will be awesome at this step. I am not, so I was a bit of a hot mess giving this thing a trim. But it worked out regardless
My biggest piece of advice on this step is START LONG. Don’t snip too much at first. Then there’s no going back. I ended up trimming mine several times until I felt like the fringe was the perfect length
Start by trimming the section of the grass skirt glued closest to the toes. This is accomplished by flipping all the other sections up and over the top of the shoe so it’s easy to see the top section and separate it from the ones below. Then just grab a bunch of the strands, and snip
Just guesstimate as you go…you can perfect it later, but this first cut is just a rough cut. Do this rough cut for each section of grass, working your way toward the ankle end of the slide
Trim each section so it overlaps the one below by at least 1/4″ – 1/2″.
Now it’s the surgical cut time. Be a bit more precise here and try to cut your lines straight across the shoe. For this stage, it may be easiest to start on the top layer (layer nearest ankle).
Cut it so that the bottom of that section overlaps the one below by at least a little bit. The goal is to hide the top of each layer beneath the top one
It may take you a little bit to feel like you’ve cut just the right amount. But once you’re happy with it, pop those puppies on and admire your super-sassy straw summer slides
