When last we left our non-slip slipper saga (say that three times fast), we had gooped up the sacrificial sock with some Plasti Dip and Sock Stop.* (Saga installments start here and continue here and here, should you be so inclined.) After it dried, it looked like this.

 I sent it through the wash a couple of times, and the dryer once (ahem…a thing you will not be doing to your lovely knitted slippers, right? you will be letting them air dry, yes?), and both things held up great.

When we started this process, I made two sorts of marks with the Sock Stop, little ones that sat on top of the fabric and had a smooth domed top, and a larger patch that I mashed down into the fabric. The smooth, domed ones are delightfully grippy! The smashed down patch is…not.

The Plasti Dip (which I emphasize is very much not sold as being for this purpose and so should not be blamed for this), all sort of sunk into the fabric and did not improve the grip.

It seems like you need that very smooth, slightly rubbery surface to get the non slip action, and you only get that when you let the product sit on top of the fabric (not smush it down in).

And alas, those little domed nubbies that make it not slip are very noticeable under foot. At least under my personal foot. Your foot may well be different!

These are about the size of a piece of rice or a lentil, so if you want to test it out, I’d recommend putting some rice or lentils in your shoe, putting on a sock, and seeing if you can feel/are bothered by them. If that doesn’t bother you, and you want your socks or slippers to be less slippery, the Sock Stop is probably a great choice. If feeling that under foot will drive you to a life of crime, then it’s probably not going to be a good choice.

However, the quest does not end here! I decided it would be interesting to see what happens if we do a large patch the Sock Stop (and don’t push it down into the fabric) and a large patch of the Plasti Dip (and put it on thick enough it doesn’t sink into the fabric).

My hope is that this will make the domed surface (and therefore be grippy), but that a large area might actually be less noticeable under foot. My concern is that a big patch like that won’t stretch, and when the fabric underneath stretches, the coating might crack (or even pop right off). But the only way to know for sure is to try it. You can watch if you want!

I’ll be back with an update once this latest round of crimes against textiles is complete. It’s going to take several days for the Sock Stop to dry (even the little dots took three or four days to go all the way clear), but I’ll let you know when I know more!

Any other products like this you want to see me try (leave a comment over here if so)? I’m not working with the separate, sew on soles right now (I may at some point in the future, but not just now), but if there are other products you’ve seen (or better yet tried and liked), I’ve got another sock we can play with…

*Those are amazon links. Amazon is the devil, and if you are able to use something else, you totally should! And also I realize sometimes driving 45 minutes to another town that might have a store that might have that thing is…not feasible. So if you’re going to buy from the bad guys, and you use those links, then a tiny bit of the money they’d otherwise keep for their evil schemes goes instead to me for my evil schemes (which mostly involve yarn or ice cream…instead of, just for example, the creation of and subsequent exploitation of a perpetual underclass that is too poor to pay for basic necessities in order to fractionally further enrich a billionaire sociopath). But you do you!