Fat Quarter Friday - Toe Separators

The other week, when the sun was shining and it was quite warm I decided, upon getting my sandals out of winter storage, that my toe-nails were not fit for public consumption and needed a severe revamp. Rather than use kitchen towel or loo roll scrunched into a sausage to separate my toes when painting them, I thought it might be quite nice to make a fabric pair. So after some days of musing I came up with these which are much prettier than tissue and much more comfortable than the type you can buy which look a bit like neon foam knuckledusters. I also think that if you put them together with some other girly bits and bobs, they might make a jolly nice present, so I am going to be doing just that!

You can find an easy print PDF file for this tutorial here .

What you need for one pair (a fat quarter will do several pairs) is:

2 pieces of fabric 3 inches x 12 inches
2 pieces of fairly lofty wadding 2 inches x 10 inches
(use what you have - you are aiming for a softish "sausage" about 1cm in diameter)


Iron down a 1cm hem on each side of the strips - don't worry about the ends.

Place your wadding along the centre of the fabric strip, and bring each side together, folding the wadding in half, and pinning securely so that you end up with a softish sausage about 1cm wide.

Sew a seam to hold this sausage in place securely - i used my zipper foot for this. You want an evenly shaped sausage, but dont' worry if the edges aren't tidy.

Now you have a secure sausage, you can choose a nice ornamental satin stitch to finish with. You might want to mark the finished length of each sausage with pins before you sew the next bit. Mine are 11 inches.

The sausage isn't very thick or firm, so your machine foot will be able to rest on it while you sew your nice edging. I used a scalloped edge which I tapered off at a diagonal at each end of the sausage.

When your satin stitched edge is in place, you can cut off the surplus fabric and the toe separators are ready to use!

So to give yourself a good toe polish which will last a month, follow the steps below - trust me, I'm a beautician:


1. First of all, keep all toe nail beauty tools separate from your finger nail tools - particularly nail files. Otherwise you risk spreading fungal diseases.

2. Clean all old nail polish off the nail plate with nail polish remover.
3. Trim the nails by cutting with a nail trimmer (pictured), straight accross. Do not shape them.
4. File the toenails, straight across to remove any snags. You can round off sharp corners but leave them as straight as possible.
5. Push cuticles down gently with an orange stick (this is easier after a bath/foot soak)
6. Buff the nail plate very lightly and gently with a buffer - paying particular attention to the base of the nail plate - this will slough off all that annoying skin which sticks to the nail and give the polish a good key. This and step 8 is the secret to long lasting polish.
7. Now insert your toe separators as in the picture.
8. Go over the nail plate again with nail polish remover to remove surplus dust and grease - when the nail is ready it will squeak - like when you know your hair is clean.
9. Prime the nails with a base coat, follow with 2 coats of your colour, then a top coat. Let each coat dry before applying the next.
10. Put your feet up for at least 15 mins, then wear flip flops or bare feet for as long as possible afterwards in order to ensure a hard finish. I always do mine in the evening before relaxing and before bath and bed time.