Sole-ful Slippers

The February/March 2008 issue of Home Companion magazine featured a slippers project created by Heather Ross. I’d saved the article to try this summer. There’s also an online version of the project here.



Heather’s fabric choices are adorable, but I immediately thought Japanese slippers and chose to use some fabrics from my stash. I bought the needed felted wool at Bella Quiltworks. I opted not to use the rick-rack because it doesn't go with my Japanese concept.



I thought it would be amusing to embroider my nick-name Japanese style using a kanji for each part of my name. It surprised me to discover that kanjis are pictograms of Chinese origin. I did the embroidery before assembling the slipper components.



The left shoe says June and the right kanji means Moon = June Moon. In researching kanjis for the months of the year, I discovered that the Japanese don’t really say “June” but say “sixth month”. So, I guess that makes me “Sixth Month Moon”. That’s kind of fun.

Update: Ge Bei Si left a helpful comment that the word for "month" is the same as "moon" so I am actually "Sixth Moon Moon." Thank you, Go Bei Si! I did notice the two kanjis were the same but was hesitant to make the association. As I'm not fluent in Japanese, I worried the whole kanji endeavor would come out as some horrid curse instead of my actual intent. This new alteration is another layer of fun because I'm a Gemini; being "Moon Moon" goes quite well with the astrological association.