...How to make lace up 'Shepherd Sandals' from $1 flip flops....

...alternate post title..."What I did on Christmas Eve"...

...when I got the Man's Shepherd costume out of the closet...I (wrongly) assumed that everything was there...
linen robe ✔
cloak ✔
head scarf ✔
head wrap ✔
beard ✔
SANDALS...er...uhhmmm...NO ✔

...and IT'S CHRISTMAS EVE...and the service is in a few hours...and the Man dresses as a shepherd to tell the Christmas story to the children...ARGHHH!

...we had a pair of sandals in North Dakota...but if they survived the move...I certainly cannot find them now...

...so of course...I cast about the house for a substitute...and I came upon Scout's shower sandals that he took to camp...

...well...I can't imagine our shepherd running into the Sanctuary in flip flops...so my creative mind got busy...and found some brown yarn and a crochet hook...

...I started with a chain...in hindsight a bit long...but I chained about 100 stitches...this will lace up the leg to the mid-calf level...if you want yours to stop at the calf you'll want to make this chain and the ending one a little bit shorter...

...then I double crocheted back down the chain...

...and attached it to the sandal thong...

...if you just double crochet around the thong strap you'll only be attaching the top of your double crochet strap...

...so you'll want to do an upside down double crochet at the bottom of the thong to attach the bottom of the long strap...

...just make sure it's secure...you don't want a weak point there...

...then just double crochet around the thong...

...I slid my stitches back down so that the thong was well covered with yarn...just by pushing on them...

...make some extra double crochet stitches at the center V of the thong and space them out to get good coverage there...

...then just continue double crocheting around the thong strap...

...up the other side...

...when you reach the end make a chain to match the other side...so mine was 100 stitches and double crochet back down...

...make sure you do the upside down double crochet at the end to attach both sides of your strap...

...and in about an hour you'll have a pair of lace up thong sandals for your Shepherd Costume...

...and here's our costumed Shepherd...I can't believe he let me take a photo of him...

...a close up of the sandals...I realize you can't see much of them here...I'll try and get him to put them back on for a better photo...

...and finally a photo of him telling the children the Christmas Story from the Shepherd's point of view...

...it was a wonderful service...

...have you ever had to do any last minute crafting for a costume?...

~Have a lovely day!