Homemade “Wood” Zori

The St. Louis Japanese Festival at MoBot is just around the corner and I was feeling the pressure about a week ago to purchase my zori and tabi for the Bon Odori. To my dismay, I couldn’t find economically priced zori for my fat-American-size-9-feet. The only zori I could find that fit the bill were $25 and they weren’t even my size. I thought I could get away with men’s zori, which are black satin, but I needed red satin zori and they still didn’t have my size.

The head instructor for the Bon Odori, Montgomery Sensei, told me to go to Wal-mart and get red flip-flops…but, those flip-flops needed to have a wooden or wood colored sole and a red satin thong. I looked all over St. Louis and, surprise; the only ones I could find with a wooden-esque sole were blue, black, brown, white, anything but red, with crappy rhinestone flowers or some such.

After looking at one pair of flip flops too many, I grabbed a comfy white pair with the intention of converting them into zori that met my teacher’s standards.

I’ve never made anything cosplay-ey before in my life and although I personally didn’t make these for cosplay purposes, I’m posting instructions so someone who needs to make them can. Maybe you need zori for a cosplay or maybe you’re like me and need zori for a bona fide (Bon Odori) reason. Maybe you have big feet, maybe you’re broke, or maybe you need a special challenge in your life to keep from going crazy, any way I’ve got your back.

First off, you need to buy flip-flops that meet these criteria. Deviate from these and I won’t be held accountable for how your zori turn out:

• The flip-flops should be comfy (duh)
• If you can’t find wood or wood-esque soled flip-flops, get the spongy foam variety of flip-flops. Don’t get any flip-flops that have sheen of any kind, the paint won’t stick. The foamy flip-flops are inexpensive and will readily absorb the acrylic paint and won’t crack once the paint’s dry. I’ve actually experimented with Dave’s zori with some Op ffs and they cracked when they were dry. So don’t even think of it; it’s already been done and it didn’t work. Try and get as light a color as possible; white is preferable.
• The thong must be either a soft fabric or soft material. NO jellies or hard materials like leather. Try and get as thin a thong as possible since sewing the satin around them will bulk it up a bit. You could fold the thong material in half and sew it up to make it thinner, but I didn’t do that since the thong seemed sturdier and more comfortable as is.

It’s the end of the summer season and everything summer is on clearance. I got my flip-flops for $7.00 at Kohl’s and that was two weeks ago – I bet flip-flops are like $2.00 or something now. Next, you’ll need the following:

Materials:

• 1/4 yard red satin or red velvet material for women or ¼ yard black satin for men (you can use any brocade or type of material you like to make custom zori)
• Matching polyester thread and a sewing needle
• Scissors to cut the material
• Measuring tape
• Brown acrylic paint in various shades to create wood grain effects. I used the following three colors of Plaid acrylic paint: white, yellow, and nutmeg.
• Small paint brushes
• A damp rag
• Clear semi-gloss acrylic sealant. MUST be acrylic.
• Sewing machine (optional)

Instructions:

1. First off, clean the flip flops well and let them dry completely.
2. Mix a decent amount of a light blonde wood color to cover both ffs.
3. Paint a light coat of the blonde color in long strokes over tops and sides of ffs. Paint the strokes in one direction, like wood grain. Wood grain isn’t side to side and up and down; it’s going to go the length of the flip-flop, so try and paint them lengthwise. Try and avoid getting paint on the thongs for the express reason that it’ll be a bitch to get the needle through later on.
4. Let dry for about 20 min and mix up a slightly darker version of the base color. You can use a brush for this, but I just applied a thin line of the color with a fingertip going lengthwise down the side of the ff. I dragged the color a bit with a damp rag going the way the wood grain is to soften the line. Don’t rub it off though. Do this a few times all around the sides.
5. Mix a slightly darker version of the darker base color and repeat step #4.
6. Repeat #5 till you achieve a wood grain effect you like. DON’T overwork it; too much detail will be lost at a distance anyway, so keep this effect to a minimum. The wood appearance is going to be carried by the color for the most part.
7. You should have something that looks like this, but of course, your’s will be slightly or vastly different depending on your preferences.
8. If you feel the need, paint the bottoms of the flip-flops, but I’ll tell you now that the paint will come off sooner rather than later since it’s acrylic. When it comes to pavement versus acrylic, pavement wins every time.
9. Let the paint dry completely, about three hours. Apply a thin coat of sealant in a well ventilated area, once again painting in the direction of the grain.
10. Let dry two hours. Repeat step 8.
11. Repeat step 10.
12. Let those bad boys dry for 24 hours before you handle them.
13. Measure the circumference and length of the side straps. Figure the length by measuring from where the thong inserts at the side to the center fork and add ½ inch. Figure the circumference by measuring around the thickest part of the thong and adding ½ inch. These half inches are for turning the material under so you don’t have unfinished edges showing.
14. Do the same for the middle “fork”.
15. Iron the fabric and cut out the properly measured amounts. You should have four side thong and two middle thong pieces.
16. Have the wrong side of the fabric facing you (should be the matte side if it’s satin) and measure out ¼ inch on each edge. Fold those ¼ inches towards you and steam iron them flat.
17. If you have a sewing machine and know how to use it, sew the hems on the pieces. If you don’t have a machine, you can hand sew the edges so they have a hem or you can see if you can tuck the edges under when you sew the material to the thong. Good luck with that.
18. Now comes the fun part…thread your needle and knot the end, set aside. Wrap the appropriate piece of material around one of the side thongs like you’re wrapping a bun around a hot dog. If you measured it right, the material should fit with just a little bit of slack, but not much. Start sewing the material together at the finished edges.
19. After you finish sewing up the thong, tuck the material into the space where the thong inserts to the sole. I used a butter knife for this and even though the word butter would make the utensil seem benign, the word knife means that it’ll screw your paint job and gouge a hole if you’re not super careful.
20. After you’ve done that, sew the bottom of the satin to the thong by passing the needle through the fabric (see why you needed to get soft fabric) thong. Keep the stitches small, small, small so it’s not obvious that it’s sewn on. Do the same for the part that meets the middle. It should look like this when you’re done.
21. Yay! Repeat on the other side!!
22. Do basically the same thing for the middle. I personally had to do a lil’ bit o’ creative sewing when it came down to finishing that piece, but that’s me and my particular flip-flops.
23. Sit back and relish this moment; you’re done and if you’re anything like me, you’re cat’s probably deaf from all the cursing you did when you pricked yourself with the needle.

I hope this experience wasn’t too painful; there’s not too much guess work, just a lot of busy work. You now have a custom pair of zori that can be as authentic or original as you like. Wait another 24 hours before wearing them around.

A word to the wise: only wear these for your cosplay or Bon Odori since they will need touch ups. Mine held up well for practice and passed muster with the group. I got a lotta “Where did you buy those? Those are so nice!” Meaning; where did you find good looking zori for your giant feet.

I’ll be making my next pair using wood stain for the bottom sole part since I really don’t feel like touching up my zori. I recommend and will be using an oil based wood stain on white flip flops for my next pair. I’m thinking of using artists’ oil paints over the stain for the wood grain effect, or maybe those oil based furniture touch up markers. I’ll post when I make the wood stain zori and let you know how it goes.

If any of these instructions confound you or make no sense, e-mail me or post a comment. I’ll do my best to help you out!