Following on from yesterday’s tutorial, remember these Bodyline shoes?
These were the originals:
So what you need for this Bodyline modification:
Shoes (obviously)
Fabric to make bows with
Ribbon in pink and white
Lace
Needle and thread
Glue gun
Scissors
Flowers
Really you only need all of those things if you’re going to try and make these *exact* shoes. I think that the idea of these tutorials is to show you all that modifying shoes like these is really easy so you can use your imagination on shoes you already have!
First thing I did was remove the bow on the front.
I played around for a while with different materials I had before finally deciding on a design.
I cut a couple of rectangles of fabric to make large bows:
After folding them:
Using a small amount of glue I attached the bow to the strap of the shoe and sewed it in place. I also added a piece of white ribbon to this area and attached it to a pink ribbon strap to go around the ankle.
I then covered the white ribbon with two rows of lace 😀
After taking apart the bows that came with the shoes I noticed that when you removed the bit that was tied around it they were kind of cute. So I added flowers 😀 You can never have enough flowers!
After attaching it to cover the join in the ribbons they were all finished 😀
Taadaa!
And there you have it! $12 shoes turning into something a bit cuter! You’re only ever going to have as good quality as your base is so these shoes are probably not going to last you forever but still not bad right?
I hope some of you feel inspired enough to go do something with your shoes!
Ugh this is reminding me that I need to clean out my shoe collection… it’s getting a little crazy! But there’s pretty much always room for more Bodyline Shoes.
Well as promised this the guide to how I turned these cheap Bodyline shoes into this:
When I got these shoes I decided that I wanted to make 1 dressy pair and one more casual pair. This is the casual pair and they were inspired by the standard big fluffy shoes that have been a staple of Hime fashion forever and my current obsession of Eva Gabor in Green Acres.
What you need:
Base shoes
Faux fur
Needle and thread
Hot glue gun
Ribbons, roses, or whatever decoration you like
String of pearls (optional)
So let’s get started!
First thing I did was unpick the bows from the front of the shoes.
I then played around with materials I had to decide exactly what layout I wanted. I happened to have these ribbon rosettes that I pulled off a hair band. You could use anything as an accent like this though or you could easily make your own version with some roses, ribbon and a couple of diamantes.
Laying things out before you get all crazy with the glue is really important because once it’s stuck, it’s stuck!
So next step. I carefully cut out a rectangle of faux fur which was wide enough to cover the band of the shoe. I left a good couple of inches on the top and bottom so there was enough to wrap around the whole thing.
Now starting on one side I put down a line of glue around the very edge of the strap and pressed the fabric on to it.
The glue is kind of just like a guide to stop the fabric from sliding around while you’re stitching it. Should look like this:
Applying a bit of glue over the whole band I wrapped the fabric around to the other side and trimmed all of the extra.
Now it’s needle and thread time! If you want the shoes to be hard wearing you will need to stitch around the edges of the fabric to prevent it fraying in the future. After that fold the top and bottom edges into the inside of the shoe and stitch them together. You should have enough so you are stitching the fur to the other side of the fur (like a big tube) rather than stitching it directly to the shoe. You can sew to the shoe if you want but making it a tube will make it easy to remove should you ever want to change your mind.
Once you’ve stitched everything in place it’s time to decorate. I decided to sew on these little rosette things. I think these shoes would be even better if they had a nice string of pearls hanging from the front but I don’t have any left at the moment so that will have to be a modification for another day!
And that’s it. It really is a simple modification ^_^
I’m ready for my close up with Eva now daaaarlingk! 😉
Tomorrow I will show you what I did with the pink pair, it’s much more dressy and a bit more impressive ^_^
Glad to be back in business and I hope you all enjoyed the post! If you decide to modify some Bodyline shoes let me know!
Morning everyone! After talking about it for quite a while Valerie and I have decided to make Sneaker Sunday a fortnightly thing (every second week for the Americans reading 😉 ) We decided to post about it less so we have more time to come up with awesome tutorials and fun things for you guys!
Let’s make this…
From this:
Pretty cute right?Well what you need is this:
Plain canvas shoes. Mine were $10 from Target
Permanent markers, I’m using Sharpies and Copics. Copic markers aren’t permanent but I only have 2 Sharpies so I’ll just avoid puddles in these sneakers XD
So you need to find something that inspires you for the design. I’m using a piece of sticky leopard fabric from The Sticker Monster.
So first thing’s first, take the laces out 😀
Practice drawing your design on a piece of paper before you do it on the shoes.
I’m doing leopard print so I started by drawing the inside blobs in light purple.
Make sure to make them odd sizes, if they are all completely even it will look very unnatural. Pastel pink and purple leopard print is of course very natural 😉
Add in a pink background around the blobs.
Then add a dark purple border around the blobs. The border should be broken up and rough. Like this:
Finished the back part 😀 Now the front. I decided to draw a swirly ribbon that ends in a heart. You should draw your picture in the lightest colour you have, I used light pink for the heart and light purple for the ribbon.
I then outlined in a darker pink/purple.
Lastly I added shading with a very dark colour. Shadows are very important in giving simple designs like this depth ^_^
I found a white paint pen laying around so I used it to add a couple of highlights. to the ribbon. I also added some small dots around the ribbon.
And you’re done!
Nice and simple and it doesn’t take long at all!
Close up:
I am quite pleased with the end result! I also love the idea that for $10 I can have sneakers that look like anything that I can pull out of my imagination 😀
Time to take them for a spin!
I hope you are all having an awesome Sneaker Sunday and if you want to see what Valerie did with her sneakers just head over to her blog and check it out!
So you took the plunge and deco’d your sneakers? Good for you! And you’ve been wearing them for several months and didn’t think anything of taking care of them? Now they are looking quite dirty and a bit yucky huh?
So how do you maintain them?
Well it’s quite easy really 🙂
First thing’s first let’s give them a nice clean! Use paper towel soaked in water and wipe them off.
Dish washing liquid is perfect for removing stubborn dirt.
Now it’s time to remove any jewels or deco that are beyond repair. I used epoxy glue on these jewels and they have cracked, I didn’t know that the area was going to be bending a lot, when you need flexible glue I use PVA.
Clean under there too. The pearls around the edge could easily have been left there if I had cleaned the dirty glue off the top and re-coated them but I wanted to change the pink flower too so I ditched it all and started again.
Gather any replacement supplies and start gluing. Note that I also removed the laces and gave them a really good wash.
I think it is easiest to glue from the outside in. Again I am using PVA glue because it needs to be nice and flexible.
I decided to fill that section with tiny plastic little stars.
So you should glue them down and then paint the glue over the top of them to seal it all in. Do a couple of coats but wait until each one is dry before starting the next.
Put the laces back in.
And you’re finished! Sorry for the dodgy phone photos I am having a tiny bit of trouble uploading though. I will put the HD photos in the next post 🙂
Cute as and almost as good as new.
The lesson here is that with a bit of maintenance an forward planning your deco sneakers can last almost as long as you want!
Check out Valerie‘s post on sneaker Sunday maintenance too this week 😀
Heehee I think a lot of people have been waiting for this boot customization tutorial! I’ve been keeping everyone on my Twitter up to date with the progress on the boots that I bought on Saturday.
See boots and I are actually bitter enemies. I have *never* found a pair of boots that have fit me well. Ever. The problem seems to be that I have small feet but I also have abnormally small calves so every single pair of boots, no matter how fitted, look like cowboy boots. Not being a cowboy, I have no use for cowboy boots.
So after all these years of searching I decided to take things into my own hands!
I bought this pair of boots from Target 50% off for $45. I chose them because I liked the heel, the rounded toe and they fit my feet comfortably. Because they are thigh high there was lots of room to play with. I also liked the velvety wedge thing on the outside.
Unfortunately the leg part was massive. So I set about making them much cuter! (Yes I’m going to make you wait until the end of the tutorial to see the end result mwahaha build the suspense!)So first thing is first… let’s turn these suckers into knee high’s :DPut the boots on and measure how high you want them. I wanted mine to be knee high.
Remove the boots and cut the tops off, make sure to leave an extra inch for seams. Also make sure the zip part is at the bottom of the boot so you can still use it!! From this point on you should be careful when using the zip that it doesn’t fly off the end!
Oh and just for the record, they are not this shiny/cheap looking in person, they are actually a nice matt black but to show the details and stitching I had to use a lot of flash >_<
Now put the boots back on (carefully because of the zip). As you can see, they are not form fitting at all. I have drawn where my actual leg is over the top of the picture ^_^ The main thing I want to do is fit them around my ankles and calves.
Let’s get going!
Most boots have seams up the front and the back, by changing this seam you can very easily change the entire shape of the boot!
Move the lining away from the seams and unpick them down the front and back of the boot.
You end up with something like this:
Put the boot back on and pin the seams back in place in the way that you want them. Pin both the front and the back.
Take them off again and thread a needle. If there is any excess leather/vinyl in the seams you should trim it off now. Be careful not to trim too closely just in case you change your mind about the fit later.
Turn the edges of the seams inside again and re-pin them in place.
Now get sewing! Thread your needle and choose a stitch that matches the rest of the boot. Sew up the front and the back ^_^ If your boots are made of a heavy leather you will need a special leather needle. Mine are synthetic and quite thin so hand stitching was not a problem.
So this is what you end up with, the modified boot is on the left and the old one is on the right.
Un-modified on the left and fitted on the right. You can see the differences around the ankle and the calves.
Much much much better fit and more comfortable because of it.
Now repeat on the other boot ^_^
You will end up with something along these lines…
The last thing you should do if you’re just fitting the boots is to create a seam around the tops and prevent the zips from coming off. Do this by turning the tops inside and sandwiching the raw edges between the lining. Sew around the tops and secure the tops of the zips too. Done!
Now that’s all well and good but they are still very plain right? There are a couple of things you can do about that. I decided to use the left overs that I cut from the tops to make some cute accessories.
I thought about cutting it into scallops and adding a new top like this:
Instead I decided to recycle some old Innocent World socks ^_^
I cut off the lacy tops and sewed them into place on the top of the boots.
Lastly I used some of the left over fabric to make some little bows for the front…
I used black lace for the middle so they matched the new tops of the boots ^_^ I sewed them on the front and that’s it!
Taaaadaaaa!
Lovely fitted boots with bows and lace! OMG THEY ACTUALLY FIT!!
I think one of the things I love so much is that they are cute but not too over the top so I can wear them with so many things!
Jesus Diamate boots: $300+
Violet’s Boots: $45 plus a few hours of work
I am so happy with them because they are really cute and also really comfortable! I took them out for a test drive shopping today and after 2 hours walking there was no pain at all. I think I’m going to add a little bit of padding on the inside so they are like wearing slippers mwahaha!
So was it worth the wait? What do you all think? ^_^ Let me know if any of you try out the boot customization tutorial yourselves!
While you’re all reading about Sneaker Sunday I’ll be on day 2 of our epic car trip yay!
After last week’s post I was looking at those sneakers again. I love them but I’ve always thought that something was a bit missing from them.
I thought about it for a while and I realised… everything needs more glitter 😀
What you need for this sneaker sunday tutorial:
Shoes
Glitter
Pva craft glue/tacky glue. Make sure the glue dries clear before starting it!
Tray to catch run away glitter
Remove the laces from your shoes.
Pour all of your glitter into a container to hold it.
Pour some of the glue onto your tray.
Add some glitter…
Mix it all together using your paint brush. You want a mix that is more glue than glitter. It shouldn’t be too chunky.
Start painting anywhere you want glitter!
I do sections around this size at a time so the glue doesn’t dry too quickly.
It also helps to pull out the tongue (which I’m leaving blank for this design) to make it easier to reach the other parts.
Repeat on the other shoe…
Wait for it to dry and you get this!
Do a second coat of glitter 😀 Depending on the colour of the glitter and your shoes you may need to do several coats.
Wait for it to dry completely and then paint on a top coat of plain glue. This will ensure the glitter doesn’t go anywhere and means you will be able to wipe them clean without damaging the glitter.
Make sure it dries completely before you do anything with them!
Here is a close up of them dry. It really doesn’t capture just how glittery they are in person! Also you might not want to glitter the holes the laces go through but I was in a super hurry doing this!
I replaced the laces with black ribbon too.
And done! Super shiny, you really can’t tell in the photos but they are absolutely blinding in the sun!
The first few times you wear them they might be a bit sticky. After you have worn them in the glue will lose it’s sticky on the outside. If you want to speed this up just get them a bit dirty XD To keep them clean just wipe with a wet cloth.
Even better if you have a matching ladybug friend…
So cute!
Lady bugs= sneaker coordination at it’s best 😀
Hope you enjoyed this week’s Sneaker Sunday! For more information on Sneaker Sunday please click here or wander over to Valerie’s blog and check out her post for this week!
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Illustrator. Strong tea, knitting, watercolours, and making a video game called Moonlight in Garland. Living with her adorable husband Jimmy, fluffy puppy Miss Lottie and Bergamot Bunny in Melbourne, Australia.
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