Regency Paper Slippers with Jennifer Collier

The much-loved 19th century English novelist Jane Austen is the inspiration behind our intriguing online slipper project devised by British artist Jennifer Collier.  Jennifer uses found papers and hand stitching to make her beautiful paper sculptures and in this 50 minute pre-recorded class she’ll show you how to make a pair of unique hand stitched Regency-style slippers that you’ll treasure.   

You can plunder your stash of paper treasures for this project as printed ephemera such old letters, tickets, photos, labels, music scores or pages from novels are the ideal basis for your slippers. You’ll have carte blanche to create a design of your choosing - whether an homage to Jane Austen or something more personal such as a tribute to a loved one - you’ll find Jennifer’s guidance on composition and placement invaluable.

After a brief history of Regency fashion and an overview of materials,  Jennifer demonstrates her patchworking technique,  showing how to create the paper ‘fabric’ from which your slippers will be made.  She demonstrates how to create and attach the soles and uppers introducing the tricks and cheats she has learned over the years as a practising artist as she goes before moving onto the embellishment.  

Slippers worn at the time of Jane Austen had pointy toes and often sported little cone-shaped heels and the templates provided with this project will help you achieve a period look. Jennifer demonstrates how she uses one of her favourite hand stitches, the dainty Venetian needle lace stitch, to finish the inside edge of the slipper while other embellishments she shows step-by-step include Suffolk puffs and flower rosettes made from paper.

Although devised as a project to be stitched entirely by hand, Jennifer also shows how your slippers can be made with the aid of a sewing machine. The class contains all the techniques and tricks needed to make a one-off or matching pair of slippers. You can make it as simple or complex as you like You can make a matching pair of slippers or a one-off slipper. Jennifer covers all the technical aspects during the video that will guarantee you will end up with something beautiful, personal and utterly unique to you.