In February 2023, Wendy van der Walt was feeling sorry for herself after missing Quilt Con, the Modern Quilt Guild’s signature event. To boost her mood, she began scrolling through photos. She stopped cold at the image of members of the Portland Modern Quilters Guild.

“They had made quilted sneakers,” she said gleefully. “I thought, ‘Holy crap, I have to do this.’ And I never do anything halfway.”

Not only did she take on the challenge, but kits for these shoes also now fuel more than half of her retail business in Manitoba. Brandon-based Fabriculous (pronounced Fa-BRICK-u-lous) booms thanks to quilted shoes.

Wendy found a designer in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, who had patterns for leather shoes then set out to improve upon them. She emailed Roderick Tieters and asked if she could adapt them for quilting cotton.

Intrigued, he agreed and began to supply high-density rubber blend soles to her exclusively. The foot beds come with a shock-cushioning base covered by an insole.

Soon afterward, she ordered enough pre-punched soles for 300 pairs.

Back home, her husband George used his graphic design skills to redraft every size for the fabric patterns. “He didn’t know what he was getting into,” Wendy said with gratitude and a smile. “Bless his heart, he did it.”

Once she aced it, she began teaching others how to create their own.

“My favourite part of my job is finding something that people just cannot believe they could make then helping them make it. That blow-your-mind moment that ‘I made this.’”

Since Wendy started selling the kits in April 2023, she has taught courses all over Manitoba and Alberta. They sold like hotcakes at Quilt Canada in Edmonton and the Manitoba Prairie Quilters show that year too.

Next up, workshops

When Wendy runs a six-hour workshop, most participants leave with one shoe completed and the uppers for a second one. Most of their time goes into quilting the fabric layers, before shaping the shoe. Finally, they punch holes and install eyelets for laces.

Stitcher don’t need accurate quarter-inch seams since the fabric gets trimmed to match the shoe pieces. That speeds up the process.

“You think you cannot do it because it looking complicated,” Wendy noted. She compares the process to making a bag or another three-dimensional project.

The project suits anyone confident using a sewing machine. They just need to follow the pattern’s steps and photos. However, Wendy has led a class of mostly non-sewists who made shoes for their graduation.

“It’s a super fun project,” Wendy said. “It taught me that, yes, I can make shoes. It’s amazing when you think about it!”

She breaks it down into simple steps to make it accessible. During one class in Edmonton, the students even made their own fabric.

Taking them up a notch

Wendy’s first pair of quilted shoes were made of a simple matte fabric with batting. She had to rebuild them twice after using 80-20 batting and a soft and stable foam interfacing.

Over time, the cotton on the back of the heels wore out from slipping them on and off. Yet, they lasted two years with minimal wear on the soles. You can even wear orthotics in them, she added.

“I wear them all day with no issue and I cannot wear Converse due to my high arches,” she stated.

Now, garment and pattern designer Ron Collins is also teaching the technique using Wendy’s kits. Other people have copied her model as well, although she only hands out her patterns at classes where she provides the supplies. She knows the templates will get wrecked by the end due to the installation process.

However, she is continually working on new designs all the time. We look forward to seeing what comes next!