Hosting a large-scale Sole Hope Shoe-Cutting Party.

I’ve talked before about Sole Hope and their amazing mission to help fight jiggers and their debilitating effects on the people of Uganda. You can watch the short video on what got them started below.

I hosted a shoe-cutting party awhile ago on a much smaller scale and when the opportunity for our church’s women’s group came up, I jumped on the chance to introduce and facilitate a shoe-cutting party for them! There were about 40 women there and we asked them to bring an old pair of jeans and empty milk jugs. We spent a little less than 2 hours working on the shoe kits and ended up with 50 shoes!

Thanks to Carrie who did all of the decorations and food!

I kept overhearing people remark that “this is a such a great idea–what a cool way to recycle milk jugs and jeans—we should do this more often” and it was exciting to watch them become excited for this project. Sole Hope is great because they stand behind the principle that “nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something.” It took so little effort for us to be there that night, chat with our girlfriends and trace/cut/assemble the fabrics and materials needed to literally and quite possibly change another person’s whole life! This is a great post from a blogger who visited the Sole Hope clinic in Uganda.

God can use our small offerings and use them in BIG ways!

Some tips/tricks for hosting a large-scale Sole Hope Shoe Cutting Event (most ideas courtesy of the Queen-shoe-cutting hostess–Nat from Take the Cannoli):

1. Don’t Do it Alone–Gather some other passionate people to help facilitate and answer questions once everyone gets started. It is also helpful to have people help cut out patterns & break down jeans (before the event) and serve as “runners” (during). Thanks to everyone who helped me at this particular event–you were amazing!

2. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare—Cut all of the patterns and paper clip the sets together, break down the jeans (if possible to get before hand) and roll them up, and organize all of the supplies needed BEFORE the night of the event. This helps the group be extra productive because those steps are already done ahead of time. Check with your local Starbucks or coffee shop, because many of them will be happy to give you free milk jugs.

3. Use only Jean Fabrics–Use jean for ALL of the fabric pieces—no quilter’s fabric or pinking shears necessary.

4. Set up Stations and Utilize designated “Runners”–three stations work well (Tracing, Cutting, and Assembly).

*Tracing: Trace on the jeans using a sharpie and then label the size in pen. BE SURE that the tracers understand that they should ONLY trace 1 complete set (4 heels, 4 vamps, and 2 heel patches) before handing them to the runners who will give that set to the Cutting station. It is tempting to want to use all of jean but tracing an incomplete set causes all sorts of confusion (as the sets should be all the same color jean).

*Cutting: Cut on the OUTSIDE of the line. Cut only 1 full set before handing it to the runners who will then give that set to the Assembly station.

*Assembly: (While the tracers and cutters get started, we had the Assembly station cut out the milk jug heel patch pieces (use the same heel patch pattern but cut on the INSIDE of the line)). Once the completed cut sets start to arrive, stack the pieces in a neat pile, check for correct cutting and make sure all of the pieces of a complete set are there. Pin the pieces together with a large safety pin and then place 5 sets into each gallon-sized baggy.

5. Have plenty of materials at each station—All stations need scissors. The Tracing and Assembly stations need sharpies and pens. It will vary depending on your group’s shoe size, but we had Toddler size 9 and could get about 8-10 heel patches from each jug. Also, with that size, one full set took about one adult-sized jean leg (2-3 sets per jean pair). When you buy your kit online, you will get a DVD that you can show at the beginning of the party so be sure to have that cued up and ready as well. I created these posters for each station and put them on the tables as reminders for the most important points they should remember.

It was such a fun night of fellowship and I highly recommend hosting a shoe-cutting party of your own! You can invite a few close friends, do it with your small group (guys can trace and cut too!), or an even larger group. We are going to do a bigger scale party at our Spring Women’s retreat in May with close to 300 women and I can’t wait to see what God will do with our small offering.

**You can get all the instructions for your own shoe-cutting party through Sole Hope’s website HERE.**

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