I've made these lovely little Victorian slipper tree ornaments for several years now - they're so simple to construct that you can make them with the children, but you can also spend a bit more time and effort on them if you wish, using more precious fabrics and beads, to make heirloom tree ornaments that can be handed down in the family from generation to generation.

Materials

• Thin card - that from an empty cereal packet is ideal
• 10" square scrap of fabric, (more if you wish to use specific pattern areas)
• A piece of felt (approx. 4" square) to tone with the fabric
• Fabric glue (I use Copydex, but spray on adhesive is also good)
• A needle and strong thread - matching fabric colour.
• To decorate the slipper, collect together old, broken pieces of costume jewellery, strips of sequin, scraps of old embroidery, bits of braid, old bead necklaces - anything which you think would be useful for the embellishment of the slipper front.

Good fabric sources are recycled upholstery fabric sample books, which you can often pick up from interior decorators or department store, and come in just the right sized pieces. If they are not big enough, use two contrasting fabrics, one for the sole, and one for the upper , as I have done in three of the slippers in the picture above. Other fabrics which give a rich finish are those scraps that are left over from furniture upholstery and dressmaking - particularly brocades and velvets.

Instructions
• Download the pattern. To save the pattern to your computer, right click on your mouse and use the "Save Picture As" menu choice.
• Print out the pattern. If you print it sized to fit an A4 sheet of paper, the pattern pieces will make a slipper approximately 6.5 inches long.

  	A selection of the fabrics which could be used.
  Either print the pattern pieces directly onto thin card, or transfer the pattern pieces to card, by rubbing over the backs of the pattern lines with a soft graphite pencil, then placing the paper on top of the card and drawing over the pattern lines firmly.
  	Cut out all pattern pieces from the card. (2 soles and 1 front).
  Laying them on a scrap piece of paper, cover each piece of card with fabric glue, taking care not to coat them so heavily that the glue soaks through to the front of the fabric when the card is placed down on the fabric. Glue only the card - there is no need to glue the fabric as well.
  	Place your card pieces carfully, to make maximum use of any attractive areas of brocade or other pattern which may be present.
  When all the card pieces are in position, press them down firmly, then cut around each card piece, leaving approx 0.5 inches of fabric margin.
  	You should now have three components, two soles and an upper, covered on one side with fabric.
  Place the three pieces under a pile of old books or other weights, for about an hour, to allow the fabric glue to dry.
  	When dry, and having snipped all around the fabric margin to make turning easier, cover the card and fabric margin with fabric glue. allow the glue to dry until it is transparent and tacky.
  fold the fabric margin over the card edge, working around the margin of the card and pressing the fabric down smoothly. Try to keep the turned over fabric as smooth as possible, paring down any overlapping "lumps".
  	Place the two sole pieces back to back - (glued card face to glued card face) and press firmly together, then stitch around the edge of the soles, catching a tiny amount of fabric edge with each stitch.
  Cut a piece of felt slightly smaller than the inside of the upper, and glue in place. Roll the card upper slightly in the curve of your hand, bringing points B & C towards each other to form a curved card slipper front.
  	Placing point A of the upper on top of point A of the sole, and matching points B on the upper and sole, stitch along the card margins from point A to point B. Place several very close stitches at the toe (point A), to ensure that the upper is firmly held in place. Finish off at point B with a few more firmly oversewn stitches.
  Now, curving the upper so that the second side A-C aligns with the sole side A-C, either hold the second side firmly in place while you stitch, or place pins along side A-C to hold the upper in place while it is sewn to the sole.
  	The finished basic slipper.
  The raw edges can be covered in a variety of ways - you can push pins,each holding a bead, all around the margin (popular in Victorian times), you can cover the margins with cord, or do as I have done here, using a jumble sale bead necklace, bought for 20 pence, to cover the join. Oversew the beading into place, leaving enough beads at the top to form into a hanger.
  	The finished bead edging.
  Cross over the beads at an appropriate distance to make a good hanging loop.
  	Cut the bead rope, leaving enough thread to tie off at the top.
  Remove the beads that are not required, tying the bead thread with four or five knots for security. Feed the excess thread backwards down through several beads, to hide it from view, then snip off. If the border is not beaded or corded, punch a hole at point X to take a piece of hanger cord.
  	The finished slipper, embellished on the front with a damaged brooch, another jumble sale find. Your imagination can be givien full rein in the embellishment of the slipper, using old beads, chains, tassels, & scraps of fabric. Small gifts can be tucked into the slipper. It can also be made up in pale cream silk or satin and decorated with seed beads to hold a small wedding or christening gift. Send me a photograph for the gallery if you make up the slipper!