Sassy Feet! blog

Glittery Makeover for Canvas Slip-ons

It may be May, but where I live -- on the central coast of California -- not every day is sandal weather yet. Which is why I raided my local Payless store recently and scored two pairs of black canvas slip-ons for painting, embellishing, and keeping my toes warm on foggy spring (and summer) days.

Here's a before and an after of the first pair I did. Payless calls these Gilly Canvas Slip-Ons and they cost $17.99. I decided they needed pimping up!

I started by looking at the lines of the shoe to see if they would give me some ideas about what to do with them. Here's a photo that I've lightened considerably so you can see the detail clearly.

I decided to do something unusual with the trim around the opening and to experiment with a few things along the way. I started by taking this slip-on right out of the realm of ordinary with a coat of Starlet Glitter It Glaze.  Starlet is a holographic glitter that looks beautiful over solid black. It is a mixture of black and silver glitter that reflects tiny fragments of color along with the silver. I hope this closeup gives you an idea.

Next was a little experiment in color mixing. The leather/fabric paints I prefer, Lumiere, seem to lend themselves to tinting with a VERY LITTLE bit of flat black from their sister line of leather/fabric paints called Neopaque. I have had beautiful results mixing Lumiere's Citrine, Pearl Turquoise and other colors with Neopaque Black, so I thought I'd try darkening the Pearl Magenta and see what happened.

The result was a toning down of the pink and a slight heightening of the violet undertones. I painted the binding around the opening of the slip-on in the tinted Pearl Magenta, then took the Neopaque Black and made little stripes. I liked the idea of painting pinstripes on pink -- a conservative line on a non-conservative color.

At this point (sorry there are no interim photos!), the shoe looked okay, but the toe looked really long, an effect that was exacerbated by the canvas extending so far up over the instep. I took my problem to Destiny. She recommended painting a toe cap, like on a sneaker, and suggested it be striped in a different direction.

We also decided to go for broke and add some pink Swarovski crystals while we were at it. Part of our motivation was that the folks who make our Lumiere paint have just come up with a new product that is a 3D paint that works as a glue for beads, crystals, etc. We have had a heck of a time finding a glue that would successfully hold stuff like this to shoes (which bend and flex and make beads pop right off) so we were excited that this might work!

We used the Lumiere 3D Black. It went on a little blobby, but we were able to press the Swarovski crystals into it. I think they will stay on, since the 3D Lumiere gives them a slightly flexible cushiony nest to sit in.

Finally we turned our attention to the back of the shoe to see what kind of pizzazz we could give it. Here's what we ended up doing -- a different version of the striping and more crystals.

Both Destiny and I ended up pretty happy with this makeover -- now I just have to do the right shoe....

Coming Unzipped

It's been five years since my first pair of painted shoes appeared in Altered Couture magazine. Since then, Destiny and I have been thrilled to have sixteen pairs of shoes, boots and sandals appear in their pages.

Today, however, to show you that all this success hasn't gone to our heads (well, my head, anyway...), I thought I'd show you a pair that was recently rejected. Personally, I love them!

These aren't the most stylish shoes -- at least to start with -- but they are all leather, super comfortable, and lend themselves to DIY shoe design! I used them a couple of years ago as the basis for the kitty-face leather-applique shoes I wrote about in "Copycat Kitty Shoes...That You Can Copy."

I decided to embellish this pair with zippers. I am fascinated by big metal zippers. There’s something about the way the smooth surface of the fabric (called zipper tape) contrasts with the bite of the big metal teeth that fascinates me. A couple of years ago, when zippers first got popular on shoes, I wrote about how to make zipper embellishments like roses and spirals.

This time I decided to leave the zipper tape flat and make it look as if the shoe were coming unzipped. I have lots of work-in-progress photos to show you, but they'll make a lot more sense if I show you the finished shoe before we get started.

Here are the steps I took.

I placed a heavyweight zipper in different positions over the toe of my shoe. I tried unzipping it a little, a lot, and everything in between. I angled it in different ways. With each variation, I used drafting tape to hold it in place and stepped back to see how I liked it.

When I had it in a position I liked, I got a chalk marker (like the kind used in sewing) and marked the edges of the opening of the zipper, and the places where the zipper started and ended on both sides of the shoe.

I undid the tape and pulled the zipper off, revealing the V area that would appear to show when the zipper was "unzipped."

Next I drew a larger V outside the lines of the first one. This was to mark the area I would paint. (I wanted to give myself a margin for error and not just paint the exact triangle that the zipper would reveal).

I painted that larger triangle with Lumiere in Pearlescent Blue, which created a nice gleaming contrast to the matte black of the shoe. Then, before doing anything else, I applied little dabs of Beacon 527 glue to the zipper on either side of the pull tab.(E6000 glue would have worked too.)  I didn't want the zipper to move before I got it glued onto the shoe!

Now it was time to cut the zipper and glue it to the shoe. I used sharp scissors and snipped between the teeth. For gluing I decided to try some permanent double-sided adhesive tape I had been urged to experiment with. I cut strips and pressed them onto the zipper tape, then pressed the zipper onto the shoe. It held well.

At this point, I decided to add another piece of zipper tape that would extend part way around the back of the shoe -- I am always telling my students not to stop too soon when doing shoes, so I thought I should follow my own advice! I played with the positioning using drafting tape, then applied more adhesive tape and clamped the loose end to hold it in place until the adhesive set.

Great! I started wearing my shoes and collecting compliments. However, soon the ends of the zipper tape at the sole line started coming loose. I guess the repeated flexing of the sole and the dirt that accumulates down there was a little too much for the permanent adhesive tape. Back to the drawing board.

I got out my trusty tube of E6000, squeezed a dab on each troublesome zipper end, and "clamped" the ends in place using rubber bands. (E6000 works best if you let it set for 24 hours, preferably clamped.) After that, I had no more trouble with the tape coming loose, even after many many wearings.

That's the story of the shoes I call "Unzipped." I guess I'm glad Altered Couture rejected them -- if they'd said yes, I would have had to ship my new shoes off to the editor and not gotten to wear them until they were returned many months later!

P.S. The permanent double-sided adhesive tape did work well everywhere else, just not where the zipper tape met the sole of the shoe.

Upcycling a White Elephant... of Sorts

I've never been one for white shoes or handbags, so my friends were dumbfounded when I brought this thing home from the local thrift store. Not only was it white, it was BIG and it was embossed with fake reptile scales and it totally DIDN'T look like anything but plastic.

Ah,I LOVE a challenge! Actually, what moved me to adopt this pathetic and rather dirty specimen of manmade leather was the fact that it had all that nice texture of the reptile scales. That plus the fact that it had disintincly marked off sections. I wanted to try color blocking the different sections then bringing up the texture of the scales by rubbing black over the paint. Here are some photos of the process.

The colors I chose were Lumiere's Pearlescent Magenta, Halo Pink Gold and Pearlescent Turquoise. Both the pearlescent colors and the metallic colors in this line of paints look wonderful  when darkened with the flat black paint from the related line of paints called Neopaque. Here's what they look like painted on the faux reptile skin (AFTER I'd prepped the whole darn purse by rubbing gently with 100% acetone).

Next, I dipped a small rag in a puddle of Neopaque Black, rubbed it on each section (one at a time) and immediately rubbed some of it back off,  so the original color would not be totally obscured.

Here's a close up of the before and after showing the difference in how much more texture was "highlighted" by the addition of the black paint.

Now here's the whole purse after being rubbed with the black paint.

Now I needed an embellishment to center in the top panel. I dug around in my embarrassingly large stash and came up with a metal washer from the hardware store and a small square sample of chain maille from a batch I'd ordered several years ago. I glittered the washer and dabbed some Staz-On alcohol-based ink on the chain maille.

Then I glued a dome button converter from Fire Mountain Gems to the back of the washer using E6000 so I'd have little loops to use in stitching it to the purse.  Here's what it looks like as a whole.

I took photos of it for this blog, hung it from a hook in my studio and let it sit. Inside, I knew it wasn't quite right. It took me a month or so before I was willing to admit that the glittery, dangly embellishment was not right for the rubbed-reptile look. But what to use instead? So, as I always do when I am stuck, I asked Destiny. She started rooting around in my embellishment stash and pulled out four components.

These were,from left, an Italian silver-tone button, a copper washer from the hardware store, a vintage-look Asian coin and a 55mm resin donut from Natural Touch Beads. When she stacked them all together, they looked like this. The choice of the aqua/turquoise resin donut was perfect: It echoed the Pearlescent Turquoise paint, while the copper washer echoed the Halo Pink Gold. The bronze of the Asian coin is barely visible below the copper washer, but it made a nice rim to the copper.

I decided to ignore the fact that it took Destiny about 96 seconds to pull these components out of my stash and stack them, while it had taken me 50 times that long to design the first (and failed) embellishment...

Anyway, overlooking this flaw of hers, I glued the parts together using E6000, glued on a dome button converted to the back using the same stuff, then stitched it in place. Here's the final result.

I am finally satisified with it. It's still large, but it no longer looks like a white elephant -- or a white whale, for that matter. All it needs now is a name. Any ideas?

 

Hightops for Our Favorite Girl

 Her name is Ellen, and she's a hoot! She also LOVES hightops. So it was a no-brainer for Destiny and I to decide to create some custom hightops for her.

We knew she loved blue, so we went to her site to see exactly what shade of blue we should use. I figured it would be the blue of her amazing eyes. As it turned out, her Ellen's true blue is more like bluebird. We decided to do a shoe that used both shades. We would glitter the body of the shoe with our Ultramarine Glitter It glaze, then we'd embellish the toe using Swarovski crystals in "Ellen's blue."

Destiny went online and searched until she found Ellen's shoe size (it's an 8.5), then we ordered a pair of Converse hightops in a royal blue. Since they would already be blue, we could apply the Glitter It glaze directly onto the shoe and not have to paint the shoe blue beforehand.

I did the glittering, then we turned our attention to doing the toe. The catch about painting or embellishing the rubber toes of hightops is that paint peels off and gluing small things to them is iffy. However, we discovered awhile back that we could successfully glue fabric to the toe. So now we cut out fabric to fit each toe, embellish or paint it, then glue the piece over the toe with Flip Flop Glue. (For step-by-step info on how to do this, see our post entitled "No More Big White Sneaker Toes." )

In this case, we used white Ultrasuede (the real stuff -- we figured Ellen was worth it!) as the toe covering and size SS20 Swarovski flatback crystals in a color called Blue Zircon. The only challenge in buying the crystals was finding a site that wouldn't charge us a huge shipping fee for them. We lucked out with www.artbeads.com, which shipped them to us at a low first class rate.

We played around with the idea of doing something special with the shoe laces -- painting them or doing fancy machine-stitching on them, but decided that it would make them too fussy for Ellen. That left just the round Converse logo over the ankle to deal with.

Destiny thought we should paint over it with the "E" that Ellen uses in her signature. She cut out circles of Ultrasuede, glittered the background with Sparkly Silver Glitter It glaze, then "painted" on an "E" using a toothpick and the Ultramarine Glitter It we'd used for the body of the shoe. (See her post called "Couture Kids" for details on how -- and why --to paint with toothpicks.) I glued the circles over the Converse logo, let them dry and tested them by trying to pull them off. 

They peeled right off,even though we'd used Flip Flop glue, as we did on the toes! I guess those logos are made of a different material.... We finally decided to try cleaning the printing off the logo using 100% acetone and painting directly on the surface. We tested how well our Glitter It glaze would stick and it seemed surprisingly stable. Destiny went to work with her two shades of glitter, a fan brush, and toothpicks.

That was it! Ellen's hightops will be shipped out this week, and let's hope the folks who open her mail will let her actually see them. Who knows, they might even make a special guest appearance on her show!

A Fabric 'First'!

Margot and I are currently creating some designs for an art exhibit at the Janice Charach Gallery in West Bloomfield, MI, called "Shoes, Purses and Mahjong: A Few of Our Favorite Things." As we discussed our plans for the exhibit, I suggested we make a couple Mahjong-themed bags. Margot liked that idea very much, so we started phase two of our process - what to make??

Margot has created nearly a zillion (I may be rounding up) incredible designs with fabric collage like the Lonni Rossi Bootie, Anne Bagby Slides, and a Kaffe Fassett handbag, but I realized I had never tried my hand at fabric collage before. I was shocked at myself! Why not try a mahjong fabric collage on a purse for the show?

Before I go further, let me tell you just a bit about mahjong. It originated in China and although it's played with tiles, like dominos, it's much more like the card game gin rummy. The tiles usually have a white background (no doubt they were originally ivory) and are imprinted with Chinese characters and symbols. These are organized in suits, as Western playing cards are.

I began my project by rummaging through our purse stash and finding a bag with a large flat front flap to use as a nice canvas for my collage. I decided I'd mimic the 3 of Circles tile because it was colorful but not too complex. Then I picked my fabric colors: a purple-ish floral cotton for the background, an aged yellowy orange for the mahjong tile itself, and red, green, and blue scraps of quilting fabric for the 3 circles.

I drew out my shapes on each color of fabric, squeezed Fray Check on the lines (to keep the fabric from raveling when I cut it), then cut out the shapes. I covered the flap of the purse completely with the purple-ish fabric, gluing it down with Fabri-Tac. Then I laid the rest of the shapes down and stepped back. It. Was. TERRIBLE!  I wish I had taken a  picture. The purple floral fabric looked so matronly next to the others that it did not work at all!  Luckily, I had chosen two different fabrics for possiblities to use as the red circle and I decided to lay everything on top of the "unused" red.

POW! It popped immediately! So I cut a new shape and glued it right over the purple flap. Since this was my first time doing fabric collage, I suppose it was the creativity Gods making sure I got LOTS of gluing practice.... Next I glued down the mahjong "tile" base, then I glued on each colored circle.

Now it was time to paint in the details from the tile I was copying, starting with a Crimson "3," the recreating the flower details in the center of each circle with Sunset Gold. Finally, by rubbing on and wiping off a little more Sunset Gold over the original dark reddish brown of the leather, I "antiqued" the rest of the bag.

Except, in purse design as in shoe design, "finally" doesn't really mean finally. It seems there's always something more one can do to make the design come fully to life. That's what happened next.

During our planning process for our purses, we raided the abundant stash of our favorite mixed-media artist for mahjong tiles, cards, and counters to use as inspiration and possible embellishments. I picked out some interesting tiles, drilled a hole into one corner of each tile, attached a split ring, and slid the split ring onto a chain. I added a large jump ring to the top of the chain and ran the purse's shoulder strap through it.  The mahjong counters and tiles became a fabulous, movable embellishment dangling fetchingly from the side of the bag.

I think it looks mighty fine for my first adventure in fabric collaging. "Yahtzee!!!" Wait, I mean, "MAHJONG!!!"

Zebra Goes Urban

Sometimes I create a shoe design just for the sake of going over the top. It's good for my spirit to throw caution to the winds and come up with something that I'll never wear in this lifetime -- though maybe I will in the next!

I guess that's one of the things I enjoy so much about DIY shoe and handbag design -- it gives me a chance to let my imagination soar, invent whole new lives for the shoes and bags I play with, and envision a life where I would wear booties like these little beauties.

I bought these Steve Madden zebra-print booties a couple of years ago on sale. I knew I'd never wear them -- high heels and I aren't on speaking terms anymore -- but I couldn't resist them.

Now, hair-on hide or fur is something you can't paint. The hair would get all gummy. You could tint the white hair with transparent Pinata inks from Jacquard -- in fact, Destiny and I contemplated tinting each white stripe a different color. But then I went to a couple of re-use stores and came home with multicolored chain (formerly a belt with the word ROCK spelled out in dangling fake-crystal-covered metal letters) and big triangular chrome washers.

I played around with the chain and the washers, and decided to hang the chain in swathes from the washers, which I would anchor with a spherical silver bead.

 

The chains are held together by a large split ring underneed the triangle. This is secured to the bootie with the same ultrastrong beading thread that I used to stitch the triangle and silver bead in place.

That was all I had been planning to do to this bootie. But I am not very good at putting away my "toys" and sitting on the craft table near where I had been working on this bootie was a cellophane bag with a lavish sprig of red velvet leaves.

Well, who wouldn't be tempted to take a few of those out of the bag and hold them up to different parts of the boot to see how they''d look?

They looked fabulous (if I do say so myself....), so I glued them down using E6000. Still, it wasn't quite enough. The leaves needed some sort of focal point.

I went rooting around in my stash and found some little black iridescent-beaded appliques in the drawer labelled BLING. (Don't let anyone tell you impulse shopping is all bad -- without it, my stash would be pathetically thin!)

I glued the applique to the leaves using Fabri-Tac (my choice for gluing fabric to fabric) and the rest is zebra-bootie history.

I call this pair "Urban Zebra" and they are dedicated to Destiny, who will one day convince herself they fit and walk off into the urban sunset wearing them.

On Turning 100: It's Better Together!

Destiny and I are DELIGHTED to announce that this is our 100th POST! To mark that amazing occasion, we thought we'd talk about how we collaborated on a particular design. For me, running my ideas past Destiny, and vice versa, is one of the best things about doing Sassy Feet!  Her artist's eye and her 27-year-old's in-your-face sense of style work surprisingly well with my inborn sassy attitude and out-of-the box thinking, which has survived 60 years of life trying to get me to obey the rules. (Not gonna happen, except for speed limits.)

Destiny and I have a booth at the upcoming fashion show of my wonderful wearable-art group, nicknamed PenWAG (if you're curious, click the link), so we have both been making altered shoes, purses and t-shirts. I have a stash of slightly used (or new) purses I've gotten from thrift stores, and I chose this one to work on, as it had a nice flattish surface for embellishing. I knew the odd spattering (of paint?) on the front wouldn't matter, as I was going to paint over it.

I had some particular embellishments in mind -- my favorites, as a matter of fact: some oversize mesh roses, a vintage watch face or two (I bought a lot of these a couple of years ago), some sample pieces of chain mail, and little wooden gears I'd found on etsy that I'd embossed to look like rusty metal.

I painted the purse with Lumiere in Halo Pink Gold, then pressed the embellishments on with earthquake putty to see how they'd look. My wife, who's also an artist, suggested stacking other, smaller embellishments on top, which I did. The result was... unsatisfying. The design didn't quite work, though I didn't know why. Here's a photo of the purse at this point.

It was time to ask Destiny for help!

Steampunk is one of my most favorite styles. I love the contrast when furturistic sci-fi meets Victorian industry. Plus the sense of fantasy the style has: airships, ray guns, wings, cogs and gears. It really speaks to me. When Margot showed me her design plan, I was intstantly excited at the idea of watch faces, metal mesh roses, and interlocking gears. But a couple things struck me as out of place.

As much as I love Halo Pink Gold, I knew it wasn't quite right for this. Much too clean, pristine and bright. I suggested that maybe Margot wanted to "tarnish" the paint job. Maybe a black rub, or some brown dappled splatters.  My eyes wanted the surface to look more like the color and texture of the gears.

The next thing I wanted to tweak just a bit was Margot's placement of the gears. I think I am allergic to symmetry (in most cases). I liked the idea of something hanging down off one strap, but I thought it would cover too many of the embellishments, positioned as they were, so I rearranged the pieces underneath the opposite strap. In my mind I had a picture of an interesting layout where the gears looked like they were actually interlocked and turning at some point.

Margot had brought a few scraps of chain mail with her, so I placed them up near the dangling ribbon, because, well, what design couldn't use a little chain mail? We took photos of our changes so Margot could reference them later. It's a good idea to do this when designing because you always think you will remember what you did. But, you won't. I promise you.

I went home and got back to work. First I got out some Neopaque Black paint, diluted it with a little water, and started rubbing it on with a wedge-shaped cosmetic sponge, a little at a time.

The trick was to not rub the paint on too thick -- we wanted the rosy gold background color to still show through. I kept a paint rag and clear water handy to immediately "erase" places where I'd gotten the paint too black. I also decided to paint the handles of the purse black. Here's the result.

Much more vintage looking! I then decided to ignore Destiny's suggestion of spattering some brown paint over the rubbed-on black.

Time to glue together the embellishments (using E6000) and stitch them down with FireLine.

At this point, things were looking pretty good, and I pinned the chain mail in place. Hmm. It wasn't quite right. Time to ask Destiny's opinion again. I took this photo and emailed it to her.

I thought the gears looked so cool on top of the tarnished golden paint job, but I could see what Margot meant about it needing "something else." My eyes were immediately drawn to the bright red roses, which were a great color contrast, but not a great texture contrast.  I suggested maybe using a little StazOn ink to add a light vintage touch to them as well.

I loved the pop of color so much, I thought it needed some red on the dangling embellishments, too. I wasn't sure what to use, but maybe tinting the lighter piece of chain mail with StazOn would work or finding a lush piece of red ribbon.  I knew Margot would figure it out!

I wasn't so sure about messing with those nice big one-of-a-kind mesh roses, which I'd found on etsy, but I do have StazOn remover (they call it "All-Purpose Cleaner"), so I figured, what the heck. It looked good!The same thing happened when I dabbed a cotton ball on to the stamp pad of StazOn's Black Cherry and pressed it onto the lighter-toned chain mail. Nice! That girl, I thought to myself, knows what she's doing!!

Here's the finished handbag -- isn't collaboration wonderful?  Here's to the creative marriage of true minds, and to our 100th post!

It's My (Altered) Bag

Have you ever bought something you thought was really great, used it once or twice, and left it to sit in your closet for four years? Of course you have! We ALL have.

In my case, it was a black leather Ameribag. This is the little back-pack-like bag that's supposed to be easy and comfortable to carry, even when it's loaded with STUFF. Now, that claim is pretty much true. There's something about its shape that distributes its weight in such a way that your shoulders don't hurt five minutes after you've slung the thing on.

It has two drawbacks,though. First, they're pricey, especially in leather, which is what I got, despite it being on sale. Second, mine sort of looked like a big black gumdrop, which is why it ended up in the back of my closet for so long. Until I remembered it was there and realized I could paint it!

I used a technique I described in a post last year where you apply four or five or six colors of Lumiere over a black background, using a cosmetic sponge to dab and daub on the color. Below is a closeup of the kind of result you get.

I started by prepping the leather surface by rubbing it with a cotton ball moistened with rubbing alcohol. Then I picked my colors: Lumiere's Pearl Violet, Metallic Bronze, Super Copper, Metallic Russet, and Metallic Olive.

I dabbed them on sparsely one at a time, and let each color dry before dabbing on the next. If you try this, don't mush the sponge around or you'll end up with mud instead of nice distinct colors. I used the flat bottom of the sponge and dabbed the paint on horizontally, then at the end I did some vertical dabs with the edge of the sponge to create more visual interest.

Let me show you the finished bag, then tell you about the detail painting and the leather beads I added.

I painted the trim, piping and pocket flap on the front in the solid colors, using the colors I had dabbed on. Then I went fishing in my stash and found some leather beads in the shape of leaves that I'd gotten years ago at a bead show. These are actually two pieces of leather glued together with a channel in between for the beading thread. Using Fireline and a leather needle (for penetrating the leather flap), I stitched down the leaves.

This was just fine - for a couple of months. Then I discovered two things. One, I just wasn't happy with the big block of Metallic Olive on the flap. It was too different from the nice daubed appearance of the rest of the bag.

Also, the leather beads started coming apart and drooping (in this photo they are still behaving themselves). When they did this, you could see the Fireline and the whole thing starting looking tacky instead of wonderful.

 So I finally decided to change things. I took off the beads and painted the flap a solid black with Neopaque Black. The black mostly hid the holes from where I'd stuck the needle through the flap, and I liked the effect better. Then I went back to my stash to find a more durable embellishment.

I ended up the other half of a pair of embellishments I'd made, the first of which I used on a demo sandal, which I wrote about a few weeks ago. (If you want to know how I made it, click on that link.)

The result worked much better to my eye. I may do some fine-tuning, but for now, here's my edited and revamped Ameribag!

 

If this type of bag interests you (or your shoulders), you can get one on sale at the Ameribag site or ebay, where you'll find other people like me, who bought one and stuck it in the back of their closet. And if you don't like the color it comes in, paint it!

A Taste of the Tropics

Two nights ago I had the pleasure of teaching a shoe- and purse-painting class to a group of very talented women, sewers all, from the American Sewing Guild's Central Coast (of California) chapter. They've promised to send me photos of their creations (it's always too hectic at the end of class for me to take photos), and when they do, I'll post them here.

One of the things I do at the beginning of each class is to demo how to paint shoes and purses. WIth the paint we use (Lumiere), you don't brush it on as if you were painting your living room wall. You lay it on gently and smoothly, with just a few strokes, as if you were putting on nail polish. And you use a soft, small fan brush to do it.

That night, I used one of a pair of shoes that a stylish friend had donated to the Sassy Feet cause as my demo model. It's a very nice Cole Haan genuine leather slide in a color that reminded me of the lush tropical green of Hawaii.

I used Metallic Copper to paint the upper, which was a great contrast. Usually, that's where I stop when I'm doing a demo. But as the evening went on, this group of artisans didn't need a lot of help from me, so I picked up my brush and kept playing around with the shoe. I painted the underside of the upper in Metallic Olive Green.

Then I put  my nearly worn-out fan brush (it had gotten sort of spiky over time!) to good use. It looked to me like the fan with its slightly spayed bristles might make interesting shapes on the insole of the shoe. So I dipped it in Metallic Olive Green and started pressing it in little arcs. This took a little chuzpah, because I had no idea how it would look -- and what if it came out terrible and all my students saw what a mess I'd created?

I've always been a risk-taker, though, so I plunged ahead. Luckily, I liked the effect! The brush marks looked like palm fronds. I decided to paint little berries onto the fronds (not sure why, it's holly that has berries -- just consider it artistic license). I used Metallic Bronze daubed with Metallic Rust for the berries.

Fine. But class wasn't over yet and still no one needed a lot of help from me! So I added some detail on the top and bottom edge of the upper, again using the spikiness of my old fan brush to create interesting patterns.

At this point in the class, I usually demo how to stitch on an embellishment, and I had brought one with me that I'd created by gluing together (with E6000) a large resin doughnut, a smaller metal donut and a gold-tone button. The colors of this embellishment had dictated some of my color choices for the paint.)

Here's the finished shoe, which I call the Tropical Slide. Thanks, ladies, for keeping me company while I created it. (And don't forget to send me your photos -- you all created some amazing pieces!)

But I've always been a risk-taker, so I plunged ahead. Luckily, I liked the effect!

Bourbon Street Beauties

Ah, Mardi Gras! The ultimate party where people strut their stuff with delight and abandon! This year Destiny and I were asked to contribute some of our "shoe art" to the San Luis Obispo arts organization's Mardi Gras fundraiser, Walk on the Wild Side!

A dozen artists were asked to contribute, and they have assembled an art auction with fused glass shoes, a shoe-shaped purse, pottery shoes, paintings of shoes, even a found-object plant arrangement reminiscent of shoes. For a peek, click here and scroll way down to "Shoe Show."

Destiny and I altered the heck out of a pair of Victorian style booties, giving them a hint of brothel naughtiness and a lot of party attitude, but keeping them totally wearable.

I'm going to tell you how we made these and show you a lot of work-in-progress pictures, but first how about a peek at the finished product?

We started by looking at the architecture of the boot, and we asked ourselves, What is already there for us to work with? We looked at the different stitching lines and how the boot worked. For example, despite the buttons and loops down the front, the boot actually fastened with a zipper up the inner side. We came up with a plan for color-blocking the bootie, then chose paint colors, glitter colors, and embellishments.

The first thing we did was to cut off those tan loops! They were sort of utilitarian-looking. Besides, it's hard to get great results painting over elastic. I'll walk you through the rest of the steps, using more photos than words to show you how.

We chose three basic colors for the color block areas: gold, copper and purple (which looks more like blue in these photos!). We painted the three areas with Lumiere in Sunset Gold, Super Copper and Grape. Then we painted the tongue of the boot and the buttons with Neopaque Black.

To keep the black paint from smudging onto the gold, we cut little squares of card stock, punched a hole in the middle to accomodate the shank of the buttons, then cut a slit from the edge to the hole and slid these little "shields" over the buttons. This saved us a lot of time doing touchups!

The next step was to apply our Glitter It! glitter paint over the gold and copper areas. We used Antique Gold and Copper, and applied it by patting it on gently with a fan brush. (That "we" is a lie -- Destiny did the glittering. She's much better at it than I am!) It took two coats of glitter to get a perfectly even effect.

For a little extra sparkle, we then glued size 20SS (4.8mm) amethyst-colored flatback Swarovski crystals onto all the buttons, using E6000 dabbed on with a toothpick.

Having the basic design done, we dove into our stash to dig up exciting, quirky, colorful and outrageous trims and accents that would give our bootie some real ZING! We brought a big basket of possibilities to the craft table and started holding up various combinations, sometimes tacking them in place on the bootie using earthquake putty (a common household item here in California!).

Our first decision was to combine orange guinea-feather pads, two squares of perforated purple suede and two black beaded appliques into a pair of embellishments we would attach at a jaunty angle to the top of the boot. We glued the various pieces together and when they had dried, glued the whole thing to the bootie.

When we were pawing through our pile of trims, Destiny's eye had been caught by a pair of gold-embroidered appliques, which she thought would look great on the toes of the boots. She touched up the lower edges of the appliques with the Grape Lumiere paint so there would be touches of purple in three places. We fiddled around with the placement (using earthquake putty), then glued the appliques down using E6000.

Next -- WHAT? THERE'S MORE?  Yes. When you are altering or upcycling shoes for a really special occasion, when you want them to truly be wearable art, don't stop too soon. Always consider whether you could add something else that will really make the design POP!

We added three more things! First, Destiny painted little black zebra stripes on the heel, with gold edges, to echo those on the appliques.

Next, we glued ruffled nylon net around the top edge of the bootie. And finally, we laced up the buttons with very narrow black double-faced satin ribbon.

At this point, we conceded that we were done. Even with our fertile imaginations (and huge stash) we could think of nothing else that our Bourbon Street Beauties needed!

This is my very favorite kind of project, one we do together, where our different skills, gifts and tastes find a way to weave themselves into something entirely new and unexpected -- our version of laissez les bons temps rouler!

Our 'Altered' Shoes in Print - AGAIN!

One of my favorite proud-moments is seeing Margot's and my name in print.  Before Sassy Feet!, the only time in my life I had ever seen my name in print publicly was in third grade when my grandmother wrote a very sweet (but extremely embarrassing) article called "Keep An Eye on Destiny" that was printed in the local newspaper.  But to be able to walk in to any Borders or Barnes & Noble, head to the periodicals section, pick up an issue of Altered Couture magazine, and see our shoes and how-to articles in its pages is still as exhilarating today as it was the very first time. It's almost surreal! 

Our lux creation of embellished, dark red ankle booties, "Ruffles at Midnight," scored us another article (and that sense of excitement) in the Spring 2011 issue. 

Since these shoes were already in great condition and a wonderful intense and sexy red, Margot and I elected NOT to repaint them.  All the better to embellish you, my dear! So, we went "shopping" in Margot's extensively awesome stash and scored ourselves black swirled soutache braid, a length of cascading stretchy black ruffles, and embellishments we made ourselves from two big black vintage buttons, two hand-hammered copper rings, two white flower-shaped vintage buttons, and two Italian silver swirling buttons.

We started by measuring two lengths of soutache braid and, using Fabri-Tac, we glued it around the cuff of each boot, starting from the zipper and clamping it as we glued. We also used Fabri-Tac to glue the upper edge of the ruffled fabric (it's actually sold for sewing tube tops) to the underside of the cuff. We glued down the edge of the ruffles at the zipper, too, so they wouldn't get caught in the zip.

The last thing we needed was something that drew your eye and went "KAPOW" - a focal point.  Margot used an oversize black button as a base, then attached the copper rings using E-6000. Two white buttons were glued on top, lining up the holes of the white and black buttons. Then she threaded a quadruple-length of Fireline through the button holes to use in attaching the embellishment.

Why? Because once she'd glued down the final swirly silver button, those handy little holes wouldn't be useable. Before gluing the top button, Margot gleefully lopped off their shanks using her big metal shears. Then she used E6000 to glue them down.

Once everything had been clamped, set-up and cured (at least 24 hours) we stitched our hand-stacked embellishment to the cuff, slightly off center from the side seam. Not everything can be symmetrical.

What stunning results -- if we do say so ourselves... -- and without a lick of paint.  We're pleased Altered Couture agreed!

 

Yo-Ho, Yo-Ho, A Pirate's Life For Me

I remember in the late ninties when a fashion epidemic of purses in the shape of women's bustiers hit the marketplace full force. For months, lacy, patent leather and fabric handbags hung from retailer shelves like tiny corsets on display. Then, as quickly as the fad erupted, it petered out again. 

That was, until a year or so ago, when Margot found one of these bustier beauties second-hand (sorry, no "before" pic -- it was just plain black with short handles). When she showed it to me I thought, "We could totally transform that into a pirate wench's bodice. How cool would that be?!" Margot liked the idea and set me to work.

First, I used some red stretch lace and cut out a new set of red lace "cups" for our girl using the existing cups as a guide. Then I squeezed a thin line of Fabri-Tac Glue around the lower perimeter of each cup line and pressed the edge of the lace down with my finger, working my way around.  At the bottom of the "U" I had to fold the lace a little bit, making little tucks to fit the roundness of the purse's breasts (for lack of a better term). I finished the cups by gluing (again with Fabri-Tac) a thin strip of flat faux-leather black cord around the edges of the curves.

To highlight the vertical seams below the cups, I glued down two strips of red velvet rickrack. This mimicked the boning an actual corset would have and gave the front of the purse extra detail.

On the back, I removed the original cheap ribbon used as lacing and cut five strips of the rickrack to repalce it with. Each strip was the measurement of the span I'd need plus about 3/4" to spare on either end. Globbing some Fabri-Tac on each end and pushing the ends of the velvet rickrack into the grommets with a toothpick, I  "threaded" it through like lacing.

I had bought a hot fix rhinestone skull months before, and had yet to use it, so I thought the center front of the purse would be the perfect spot.  I ran into a bit of a dilemma, though, on how to iron this onto such a bulky, curved surface. Margot stepped in with her ingenious brilliance and suggested I iron the rhinestone motif onto black fabric first (DUH), cut the fabric around the applique, and glue it to the front with Fabri-Tac, which worked wonderfully.

The original purse had flimsy looking hand straps that just sort of hung limply from the top edges, so I cut them off  as close to the seam as I could.  As a replacement handle we used a 24" choke-chain collar for dogs, which you can find at just about ANY retail or pet store (and it comes in many gauges, colors, and lengths). But because the chain was so heavy, we needed something heavy duty to hold it in place.

I made two leather strips to use as tabs and folded them over the large rings at each end of the chain. Margot helped me poke two holes in each side of the purse with something called a needle tool. We made matching holes in the tabs and lined up the tab on the inside the purse. Then we fed one end of a thick leather cord in through one hole in the purse and the hole in the tab that lined up with it. We brought the cord back though the second hole in the tab and out through the hole in the purse that lined up with it. Once that end was back on the outside of the purse, we tied it off with the other end in a nice non-slip surgeon's knot.

Lastly I strung a couple strands of skulls beads, tied them onto one of the big metal rings and pinned a silver shell brooch to the center of the bodice. Wow, what a transformation! This purse, hands down, gets the most attention when we are teaching classes and doing shows. It's such a hit, I decided to list it on Etsy to sell. If you're interested, go take a look!

This Gets the "Most Improved" Award!

Last spring, I played around with adding pre-packaged embellishments to shoes and blogged about my experiments. In one of them, I started with a green faux-leather wedge from Payless. Last month, when Destiny and I were packing up shoes to paint as a demo at Day With Creative Women in San Luis Obispo, we threw in the other shoe in the pair, which was still in its original retro-looking state.

Once at the craft show, I ruthlessly cut off the bow, set it aside for possible use on another project, and decided to experiment with Glitter It! paint. The way our glitter paint works, you paint the background as close to a matching shade as you can, then pat on Glitter It! in the corresponding color.

What would happen, I wondered, if I painted the back 2/3rds of the shoe black, and the front Metallic Silver, but then used the same color glitter on top of them both. The glitter color I had in mind was Starlet, which is a mixture of black and iridescent silver flecks. You can see it (just barely) in the far lower right of the palette below.

 

Well, the result was ... not so hot. The two areas of the shoe looked too much alike. Back to the drawing board. I decided to cover the Starlet Glitter It! paint with Sparkly Silver Glitter It! paint.

That worked! Take a look.

As you can see above, I had also decided to paint the inside Super Copper. An interesting thing happened while I was doing that: I slopped over the edges a bit and the copper showed on the outside of the shoe -- and it looked great! Here's a closeup. Because of the texture in the glitter, the result was sort of smudged edge, which seemed to work well. I also chose to paint the insole itself black, to provide more contrast.

 At this point I thought the shoes looked fine and was going to stop messing with them. But then I went to a bead store that sold dichroic glass and fell in love with a couple of little pieces (the little ones were the only ones I could afford!).

I decided to make my own embellishment out of three of these, two little lozenges and an open square.

I got stumped trying to figure out how to hold the pieces together. Finally I realized that I could just line up the blue lozenges right side up, put a line of E6000 on the back of of the open square and set it on top.

When the glue dried, the pieces were sturdy enough to turn them over. Then I put a big blob of E6000 on the back and pressed a dome button back converter onto it. 

When that was thoroughly dry (I always wait 24 hours as it says in the E6000 instructions -- one of the few times I actually follow directions to the letter...), I stitched it onto the toe using Fireline and a leather needle.

 Here's the finished shoe. Quite a difference from that retro wedge I started with -- and a huge improvement, if I do say so myself!

I Am Accessory, Hear Me ROAR!

Margot and I have covered a lot of miles since the inception of Sassy Feet! (She much more than I) traveling to various cities around California teaching classes and peddling our craft.  This time last year we were gearing up for a local craft show at the San Luis Obispo Mission Plaza, hosted by the Women's Community Center of SLO County, called Day With Creative Women, and we were dutifully crafting a selection of embellished purses to sell in our booth.  Creative Women is an event where female crafters, artists, and vendors get together in one spot to showcase and sell their wares.

During our pre-show creative madness, Margot had a large purse selection set out so we could choose which caught our fancy and let loose designing them.  Amongst them sat a cute, purple, wallet-like clutch with a heavy brass ring. I liked the way it had these diagonal stitches that resembled sun rays.  The fact that it was already purple, and in really good shape, made me sigh with a bit of relief because I could choose not to paint the whole purse first.

I decided to use ol' reliably-fabulous color-blocking, but with a twist - animal print!  I used Lumiere's brass to paint the inside of the two diagonally stitched sections.  After the brassy coat dried, I used a thin script brush (The smallest in our brush kit)  and Neopaque black to paint "tiger stripes" diagonally the other direction. The final touches were to clamp on a dichroic glass embellishment using a small dollop of E6000 to adhere it and brush on a coat of Future Floor Wax to seal the painted pattern. Simple, yet effective!

A couple DIY Tips When using E6000:
- Keep the embellishment clamped a full 24 hours to let the epoxy setup.
- Don't try to apply the epoxy directly to your item.  The tube's opening is not fine-work friendly and it will get all over everything.  Instead, drop your dollop onto something else, like scrap paper, paper plate, or silicone craft mat (if you have one), and use a toothpick to apply the epoxy.

A Touch of Lace

Just got photos of some Keds with a wedge that a Sassy Feet-inspired artist embellished with lace, and I wanted to share them with you. Her work also made me think about that fact that lace isn't just for weddings or fancy evening shoes. Take a look and you'll see what I mean.

Sandy from Pennsylvania has started painting and embellishing shoes for clients, but this client didn't want any painting done, much to Sandy's dismay. So Sandy simply glued on some lovely white lace for a study in contrasts: black and white, canvas and lace. I particularly like the way the lace scoops down over the side of the wedge.

You know, if the piece of lace you are working with doesn't quite fit the area where you want to apply it, you can simply snip off the excess. Lace is woven so tightly that it rarely unravels. And if you're worried about it doing so, use Fray Check for safety's sake.

Here's another example of putting white lace against black,this time Venice lace against faux black suede. The collar of the shoe is edged with polka-dot organza ribbon and the embellishment on the toe consists of a silver-plated fan charm painted with Lumiere and backed by a fan of lace.  Destiny and I designed this pair of shoes for an evening wedding, and we call them Spanish Lace.

These white satin bridal shoes got the lace treatment in such a way as to soften the straight line across the instep.

I glued on a pearl-trimmed lace applique to the outer side and toe of each shoe, then attached a clear snap so the once the bride's foot was in the shoe, she could bring the lace all the way across and snap it in place. The effect was charming --
a little old-fashioned but bright and fresh as well.

By the way, if you are gluing lace to genuine leather or fabric shoes, I recommend Fabri-Tac. If you are gluing to faux suede, try The Ultimate.  The exception is when the faux suede is really a polyester fabric with nap, in which case it's actually fabric, so use Fabri-Tac. Look inside the shoe; by law the manufacturer must say what the shoe is made of.

Next week, I'll show you some things we've done with colored lace. (Hint: We put it across the toe and around the cuff of boots!)

The Black Flat Challenge, Part II

Last week, I showed you the first four of the eight black flats I painted and embellished in my self-assigned challenge to see if I had enough oomph in DIY shoe design to try doing a book about it. This week I want to walk you through the other four designs.

We'll start with one I called Caribbean Seas. It's painted with Lumiere's Pearlescent Turquoise, then trimmed with a beaded fringe that uses real glass beads stitched onto black cotton twill tape. This is one of the favorite colors in the workshops I teach (the others are Metallic Olive and Citrine).

It's also surprisingly versatile. When I taught the amazingly talented women at the Wearable Art Connection in Southern California, one of the students (a silk painter and Bernina designer), got great results when she added Neopaque Black to the Pearlescent Turquoise. It took her a while to get a color dark enough to suit her taste, but every iteration she created was flat-out gorgeous. 

I chose this beaded fringe because it perfectly matched the paint, and in doing so I made another cool discovery. The sound of the little glass beads hitting the shoe when you walk is really charming! That's why I shun plastic beads on my shoes (plus they don't reflect the light as well). In this case, the twill tape on which the beads were mounted was nice enough to serve as piping around the topline of the shoe, so this was a REALLY easy shoe to do!

After this, I wanted to get more creative. On shoe #6, I decided to try using rubber stamps to put designs on the shoe. (I'm not good at freehand-painting things to look like...uh... things, if you know what I mean. So I come up with a lot of workarounds!)

I had a couple of Purrfectly Clear rubber stamps from www.danamarie.com and tried those. One was a small spiral (called a "small curly cue"), the other a small triangular "spiral" called a "twangle." I used a cosmetic sponge to daub the Lumiere onto the stamp, then pressed it onto the shoe. That's when I discovered that stamping on leather or faux leather is very different from stamping on fabric or paper! The latter will absorb the stamped paint. Shoes won't!

Ah, I said to myself, Live and learn. I won't get dramatic and crisp stamped images on shoes. But these two stamps lent themselves to slightly smudgy results. They just looked like petroglyphs! So I named the shoe Ancient Spirals and used Lumiere's Pearlescent Violet, Super Copper and Sunset Gold for the stamped designs. In the process I discovered that I had to hold something very small and hard (I used a scrap of bathroom tile) inside the shoe to create a firm surface on which to stamp.

The finishing touch was attaching little brass spiral charms I'd found in a scrapbooking store. Since I was new at this embellishing stuff, I simply glued them on with Super Glue. BAD idea! Bad, bad bad! They popped right off the first time that part of the shoe bent. I had to sing another chorus of "Live and learn"....

Later I went out and found tiny gold seed beads and put one on top of each spiral. Then I used FireLine to stitch the spirals down by bringing my needle up from inside the shoe, through the spiral and the bead, then back down through the spiral and into the shoe again. The bead acted as an anchor to hold the spiral in place. (Sorry, I don't have a photo of the shoe after I did that.)

Now came Shoe #7. On this one I also wanted to paint designs, but I was stuck with the same problem: I can't paint stuff that looks like stuff. So I decided to let my paintbrush do the work. I started by painting the shoe Burgundy. Then I mixed a little of the Burgundy into a small pool of Pearlescent White to get a sort of cherry-blossom pink.

Next I chose a brush with an interesting shape (a 1/2" oval wash brush made of Taklon) and let the shape of the brush dictate the shape of the designs. I just dabbed the brush in the paint and dabbed the paint onto the shoe. I didn't plan where the dabs would go. I didn't fuss if they overlapped. I just did it! 

Finally, I decided to take an oversized Asian coin and brush some of the pink onto it. Now, Lumiere isn't formulated to stick well to metal, but I figured that as long as no one took a fingernail to the surface, it would probably be just fine. (It was.) First I tried gluing down the coin, which, if successful, would have made it impossible to walk in the shoes because the toe wouldn't have been able to bend. Then I got smarter. I glued a button back to the back of the coin using E6000, then stitched it down using FireLine. Finally, I stitched on two glass leaf beads that came with metal loops. The name of this one is Cherry Blossom.

The idea for the final shoe of the challenge started with some yummy hand-dyed silk ribbon I'd found online at M&J Trimming. The color is called Cymbidium and it's still in their store. (Here's the link to the 1" wide ribbon, which is what I used.)

I decided to see if I could paint a shoe that would mimic the hand-dyed effect. I started by painting the toe orange (the name of the Lumiere color I used is Halo Pink Gold) and the heel Pearlescent Violet. Then I got out a cosmetic sponge and started dabbing Halo Violet Gold in the middle. I also dabbed some of the toe and heel colors lightly over the places where those colors met the Halo Violet Gold.

Eventually, the colors began to look like they were morphing from one into the other. I have to tell you that I teach this technique in my classes and even total beginners are successful with it. Give it a try. (Do let the paints dry a bit between coats, though.)

To attach the ribbon, which laces over the instep like on a ballet slipper before wrapping around the ankle, I studied photos of ballet shoes and did some experimenting with the angles at which the ribbon would need to be attached. First I glued the start of each ribbon in place. (Later I had to go back and stitch it to the cushioned-fabric lining of the shoe since glue wasn't good enough to hold it!) Then I fashioned little loops out of purple Ultrasuede to glue (yes, later I had to go back and stitch them in) at the back of the shoe. 

I called this shoe Orchid Sunset, and it showed me that adding ankle ties to shoes is a lot of fun -- especially with spring coming up -- and pretty easy. Ankle ties don't actually have to be functional. Ditto ankle straps, for the most part. There's a lot of information in my Sassy Feet! book on how to add these to shoes.

The result of my Black Flat Challenge wasn't my concluding that I was the world's greatest shoe designer just waiting to be discovered. But it did prove to me that I LOVED doing shoes, I liked figuring out what worked and what didn't, and I liked explaining all of it. So I went full steam ahead and Sassy Feet was born!

Just for fun, here's the shot again of all eight designs and the plain Jane black flat I started out with.

The Black Flat Challenge, Part I

Back in 2005, when I discovered that my gorgeous Lumiere paints were not just formulated to work on fabric, but also would adhere to leather and manmade leather, I painted and embellished my first pair of sandals. I wrote about these in an earlier post, and told how astounded I was that these sandals were not only selected for publication in Altered Couture magazine, but were featured in an ad for the same magazine.

That's when I thought, Hey, maybe I should write a book about how to paint and embellish shoes. Now, I know that's not a typical person's second thought after doing ONE successful creative project. Most wearable artists and crafters spend years and years perfecting their skills before thinking about writing  a book, but I was a writer and editor by trade, so the thought seemed perfectly normal to me.

Of course, I did realize that I hadn't exactly proven my talent in the field yet (to say the least), so I set myself a challenge. I would find some really inexpensive, really plain black flats and see if I could do eight interesting variations using different colors and paint techniques and different embellishments. If I succeeded, I would proceed with the idea of doing a book. I called this my Black Flat Challenge. Above is a photo of the final eight, plus the plain black flat they all started out from.

I thought it might be interesting for you to hear about each of these attempts -- and what I learned from the mistakes or near-mistakes I made! I'll talk about the first four this week, and finish up with the last four next week.

First I bought several pairs of black flats at Payless (on sale at $9.99). Then I picked a single yummy color of Lumiere (in this case Metallic Olive) and added a simple embellishment. The embellishment was a combination of three pieces. On the bottom I used a raw brass stamping (which I polished and sealed first). Then came a gold-toned Celtic-style charm. On top I put a single freshwater pearl that had been dyed purple. This added a tiny touch of complementary color while also hiding the loop in the charm and the hole in the stamping.

I consulted with a friend who's an extraordinary beader, Debra Jurey, about what kind of thread I could use to stitch on embellishments. I told her I needed something that was really strong, fairly fine and would hold a knot. She recommended I use FireLine beading thread, which I did.

Then I went online and learned how to tie a surgeon's knot, the kind that won't come undone over time. I also learned NOT to put the knot inside the shoe because my feet would feel it. Like the princess and the pea! Now I put all my knots on the outside of the shoe, but underneath the embellishment so they can't be seen. I called this shoe Celtic Pearl and I liked how it turned out. It was simple, but elegant. And inexpensive!

The design for shoe number two started with some sparkly midnight blue net roses that I'd found at a sewing festival. I thought one of these would look good on the toe of a flat. I painted the flat Pearlescent Blue and stitched down the rose. The result was okay, but it wasn't enough somehow. This was my first discovery that with DIY shoe design, you really need to go one or two or three steps further to get a great shoe.

So I dug around in my nascent embellishment stash and found some shiny black piping, which I glued around the topline (also called the collar) of the shoe. It looked good! Then I looked at the shoe some more and thought it might be nice to accent the line where the low heel met the upper.

I rummaged through my now-growing stash and pulled out some narrow faux suede piping and glued it along that line. (Gluing down these two kinds of piping was preceded by my testing A LOT of different glues to see which would work best when gluing fabric -- which is what faux suede is made of -- to Lumiere-painted leather or manmade leather. The answer? The Ultimate.)

In doing this shoe, which I named Midnight Rose, I also learned that when you glue piping around the topline of a shoe, it's best to apply Fray Check to the cut ends AND to stitch those ends to the shoe so they don't work loose over time. 

Shoe number three, which I would eventually name Garden Party, was painted Pearlescent Emerald (I still hadn't worked up the courage to mix colors). Then I started messing around with wide wired ribbon and a big flower pendant made of something the jewelry supplier called cherry "quartz." Of course, those quotes around "quartz" tell you it's not real quartz, but it looked close enough to me. Because it was a pendant (which they called a "focal component"), it had a hole drilled in it, which was perfect for my needs.

I chose some inexpensive polyester wired ribbon woven in an ombre pattern, where one color shades into another. As I was trying out the different style and sizes of bows I could make, I discovered that this type of ribbon had a couple of distinct advantages over silk ribbon.

First, it was WAY cheaper. Second, the wire at the each edge gave it more body so that I could either let the ribbon stand out a bit from the sides of the shoe or bend it so it curved close to  the sides. I also found that I liked the slightly rumpled, vintage look I could get with wired ribbon. I used The Ultimate to glue the ribbon down at the center and at its ends (except for the front-most ends), then I stitched down the cherry "quartz" flower over it.

Now I was on shoe number four, but I was still playing it pretty safe. I switched palettes and used a Lumiere color called Old Brass (which I no longer carry in the Sassy Feet store because not enough people were buying it to justify my keeping it in stock). I decided to go for contrast and picked a very delicate and delicately colored French ribbon to use as edging along the topline. The ribbon had a narrow strip of embroidery adjacent to a short ruffle (only the French would create something this sophisticated yet girly).

As I prepared to glue it down, I noticed that the embroidery was so delicate, it might not show up very well. After all, these shoes were going to be seen at a distance of five feet or more. That's when I looked at the reverse side of the ribbon, where all the threads show. It was much more colorful, though still delicate. Lesson learned: Always check out the back side of the fabric -- it might be a lot more interesting than the front!

I called this shoe Sweet Memories, and if you haven't figured out by now that it's really fun to name the shoes you create, reread this post. Then go name your shoes! (Later, I would get woven labels made saying "Sassy Feet" and glue these inside the shoes. Even more fun!)

Tune in next week for a look at the second four shoes in the Black Flat Challenge -- and my adventures and misadventures in stamping on leather, mixing colors, and adding ankle ties!

Giving an Old Purse That 'Kaffe' Touch

A while back, I went on a thrift store run through my little town with the express purpose of buying purses to revamp. One of the purses I found was a drawstring style and had long leather leaves, of a sort, hanging down all around. I thought it showed particular promise. Destiny (and everyone else who saw it and felt moved to comment) thought it was atrocious.

I pictured painting each leaf a different color. Or something. But the spirit hadn't yet moved me. (I think my enthusiasm for the revamp was drained by the fact that NO ONE seemed to think I could make  a silk purse out of this particular sow's ear.)

Then, early in January, I went to hear my favorite fabric designer, Kaffe Fassett, speak and show slides of his work. His fabric designs are about COLOR, COLOR, COLOR. I have loved his fabrics for years and getting to hear him speak was a real treat. I also got to do a little fabric shopping -- I came home with seven quarter-yard cuts of his different floral prints in a range of reds and blues with purple and other highlights.

 One of the things Kaffe (pronounced Kay-ff) loves to do in making quilts is to use primarily one color but in a huge number of different prints. An example of this is his Hot Diamonds (at left), which is in Kaleidoscope of Quilts, one of his many delicious books of patchwork designs. His inspiration made me decide to cover the leather leaves with his fabrics, using various blues on the upper tier and a variety of reds on the lower one. 

I started by tracing one upper and one lower leaf (they were slightly different sizes) onto some heavy paper. These I cut out to use as templates for tracing the leaf shapes onto the back of the fabrics. After tracing the outline of the leaves onto the fabrics -- but BEFORE cutting them out -- I squeezed a line of Fray Check onto each of the outlines I'd traced. When it was dry, I cut out the leaves.

Then I played around with color combos to determine which blues to put atop which reds, and what sets of leaves should be next to the other ones. Once I'd decided, I set the leaves aside and started thinking about what color to paint the purse. (I wanted to get the painting all done before gluing the leaves on.) Destiny advised me that if I chose any color other than black, the colors of the fabrics wouldn't look as dramatic in contrast. But I couldn't leave the darn purse black! It's not in my nature to leave things be....

So I opted for a dark rich eggplant, which I created from Grape Lumiere with a little bit of Neopaque Black mixed in. I cleaned the leather surface with rubbing alcohol, then painted on the color. Finally, I sealed my paint job with Future to add shine to the lovely eggplant color.(I didn't bother painting the leaves, since they would be covered with fabric.)

Then I got out my Fabri-Tac glue, which is what I prefer when gluing fabric to unpainted leather. I applied a thin line of the glue to the outline of the leather leaf, and pressed the fabric leaf onto it. Naturally, there were places that needed a little extra trimming of the fabric, so I did that too. Once the glue dried, I went back to look for places that needed a little extra glue. You have to be careful not to use too much glue or it will come through the fabric and leave traces of itself. Also, I only recommend doing this with really nice quilting cotton, or some other tightly woven fabric (other than silk, which will stain). When in doubt, test the glue before cutting out your appliques.

For the finishing touches, which are what make a revamped purse look like an artisan purse, I did some highlighting with different paints and added beads to each leaf. I painted the stitching line immediately above the leaves with Burgundy Lumiere and painted the facing at the top of the bag the same color. I used Indigo Lumiere on the drawstrings. I sealed these areas with Future, too.

When I got done with that, there still seemed to be something else that was needed. So I rummaged though my bead stash and pulled out some luminous pink beads, which I stitched on using a leather needle and some Fireline beading thread.

Funny how those beads really brought the whole thing together! Here's a close-up of them, showing how they're stitched on.

 Now all I have to do is decide whether to add this revamp job to the Sassy Feet store, or use it myself.... Hmm. I'll let you know how that turns out!

NOW I HAVE A QUESTION FOR YOU, dear reader. I usually wait until the end of each post to show you a picture of what the shoe or purse looked like after it was redone. Would it be more helpful if I put an "after" photo at the beginning of the post too? Or do you like working up to it? Please reply by leaving me a comment. THANKS!  --Margot

Our Bridal Shoes Make the Big Time!

Great news!  Destiny and I just heard from Beth Livesay, editor of Altered Couture magazine, that she wants to use FIVE pairs of our bridal shoes in their May 2010 issue.  Well, actually, she wants to use four pairs of Destiny's designs and one of mine.  But that's okay! I am so proud of her, I am probably more excited than if the numbers had been reversed.

Let me give you a quick tour of the shoes that will be in the article we're doing.

This is called Cinderella Dreams and it's the FIRST shoe Destiny ever designed. Not bad for starters, huh? (Big smile) It's an ivory ballet slipper with Venice lace that she highlighted with Bright Gold Lumiere paint and flatback Swarovski crystals. The embellishment on the toe is actually one half of a fancy clasp for an evening cloak (which I found at an amazing fabric discounters in San Jose -- it's called Fabrics R Us).

This little number Destiny calls Dancer's Delight. It was very simple to make. She started with a faux leather bridal shoe from Target and glued on three types of embellishments. First she attached two strands of silver leaf trim (made of polyester fabric) using The Ultimate glue, which is what we like best for gluing fabric to manmade leather. Then she added one large organza flower to the toe and several smaller ones to the ankle strap. These came from a scrapbooking store and were blessedly inexpensive!

 
This little bootie is the biggest hit when we go to Bridal Shows.  It's another of Destiny's creations, called Better Than Chocolate. It uses Lumiere's Metallic Rust paint on the larger areas and a darker, flatter color of brown (from a line called Neopaque by Jacquard) for painting the little pointed edges. A 3"-wide brown organza ribbon tied in a big poufy bow tops it off.

 Here's another boot the young women love, especially if they are doing an old-fashioned wedding. It's my design, called Kaylie's Bridal Boot. It started out a dark pink. I painted it with Lumiere's Pearl White (it took three coats, I have to admit). Around the top I glued a piece of ruffled satin trim. (Obviously this sassy little ruffle is only going to be visible to the bride -- and later the groom, one supposes -- but who else really matters?) To create the glittered appliques, I simply snipped them out of some embroidered net and and glued them on with The Ultimate. The final touch? Pink Swarovski crystals glued into the centers of the flowers.  

Now for the piece de resistance. Destiny's Diva Couture heels, which just got back from a Wearable Art exhibit at LAX in time for us to submit them for the magazine deadline.

She used Petal Pink Glitter It! paint on the body of the shoe. Then she added a rhinestone button and three German crystal drops to the toe.

The best part -- I think -- is what she did to the heel and back of the shoe, however. She used auto-detailing tape to block off narrow white stripes, then painted the heel pink before removing the tape. At the top of each pink stripe she added a dot of pink glitter. Then she glued a line of good-size Swarovski crystals to the back seam line. Shoes fit for a diva, indeed!

In case you didn't know, Destiny and I have a sideline doing custom bridal shoes (plus bridesmaid and flower girl shoes). We call the business Silk Forrest Bridal, and you can see more photos of our shoes in this line at www.silkforrestbridal.com.   P.S. The flower girl shoes are especially adorable!

Combining Paint and Fabric Collage

I have a thing about high-top and low-top sneakers. I really like to wear them -- they make me feel like a kid again -- and they are great to paint and embellish. The Lumiere paints I recommend for use on leather work beautifully on fabric.

Also, you can often find great deals on Converse lookalikes at Payless. That's where these gray plaid low tops came from. I bought them for myself (as opposed to buying them to use as a sample shoe for Sassy Feet techniques) and wanted to do fabric collage on them. As it ended up, they became a combination of painted and collaged. 

I started with packet of 12 different purple and blue cotton prints from my local quilt store. There was an 11"x7" piece of each print, more than enough to do a pair of sneakers, high or low top.  I started by using my pinking shears to cut out narrow 7"-long strips. Then I arranged these so there was good contrast between each strip. Here's what that arrangement looked like, shown with a measuring tape to illustrate that the strips are slightly different widths.

Then I got out my Fabri-Tac glue, which I prefer for gluing fabric to fabric and which I squeeze into an 89-cent glue applicator so I can get a finer line of glue and not kill my hand gripping and squeezing a big bottle. Next I started snipping pieces to fit the height of the shoe.

No measuring, I just glued one end of the strip to the place where the rubber sole met the fabric upper, then glued my way up the strip until I reached the top of the shoe and snipped off the excess (which I saved to use on another part of the shoe) with sharp little sewing scissors. I worked from the back forward, overlapping the strips and being sure I had glue on the entire back of the strip I was gluing.

I worked my way all around the sneaker like this. When the main part of the sneaker was done, I then fabric-collaged the Velcro straps, the tongue, and the part of the sneaker they were fastened to. And guess what? It looked terrible!  There was too much collage, too confusing to the eye. So I pulled off the fabric, wiped off the glue, and when the shoe was dry, simply painted that area with Lumiere Pearlescent Violet., which created a wonderful contrast in texture to the fabric.

There were two more steps to this project. First was to cover the raw edges of the cotton strips so they would be protected from the friction caused by slipping my foot in and out of the shoe. For this I used fold-over elastic, which can be purchased very cheaply from a few online stores, including www.sewzannesfabrics.com and www.faysfabrics.com. It comes in quite a variety of colors. I attach the elastic by stitching it down at the beginning, gluing the middle and stitching down the end.

The last element in this design is the toe. I decided not to leave the original white rubber toe. However, all but the most expensive specialty paint will peel right off of rubber, so I had to think of something else. That something else was... more fabric collage! You can use either E6000 or Flip Flop Glue by Beacon to attach fabric to the rubber toe -- I think I used Flip Flop Glue, since it was less sticky and therefore easier to work with.  

I have to say, I love how these low-tops turned out! They look great with jeans and go with all the blues and purples I love so much to wear. Plus, they are absolutely one of a kind. If you like the fabric-collage look, drop in to your local quilt store and see if they have any pre-cut packs of color-coordinated prints. Or rummage through your stash. It's really fun to mix and match prints. If you're ambitious, you could even use this technique on a purse. Hmmm..... Maybe I'll try that next. Stay tuned!

Making Your Own Button Stacks

Destiny and I just finished putting about two dozen of our one-of-a-kind button-stack embellishments in the Sassy Feet store, and I thought this might be a good time to give you some insider tips on making your own.

I blogged about some of the button stacks we were making last spring (see my May 10 post), but now I want to talk about how to do it. To start with, you need to poke through your stash or do some shopping for buttons, donuts, Asian coins, flat beads, anything that will stack. Be sure to buy big enough pieces to use for a base -- I aim for 1.5" - 2" wide. Here's what a button stack that's 1.75" wide looks like compared to a quarter.

This particular button stack also illustrates a common problem when trying to design a unique and eye-pleasing embellishment: buttons are mostly round, and stacking round on top of round on top of round isn't very interesting, design-wise. Be on the lookout for buttons and similar embellishments that are geometric shapes (like the triangular black buttons in the top photo or the gold-burnished buttons at right).

Also VERY useful are beads or stick pearls that can add a diagonal line to the design. Often bead stores will sell stick pearls (like the rose colored one in the top photo) singly, so you don't have to buy a whole strand.

 

Now a few words about the technical side of making stacks.  Even if your stack consists of flat buttons with holes in them so you can easily stitch up and down through all the layers, I recommend gluing the buttons together using E6000 before stitching them to your shoes or purse. If your layers are at all unusual, like if you are incorporating a gemstore donut (as in the embellishment above, third from the left) or elements that don't nestle neatly into each other, you'll definitely want to glue the layers together first. When using E6000, the rule is apply it then clamp it and let it dry for 24 hours.

If your bottom-layer embellishment is something that doesn't have any openings drilled into it, like the rose to the right, you have a couple of choices. You can glue on a dome back button converter like the gold one at right.  Or, you can take a simpler course and glue on a small, flat button. Just be sure to insert the thread through the button before you glue it down. See the photo at lower right.

I often pre-thread my button stacks before gluing them together. I use extra-strong beading thread called Dandyline (which is the same as braided fishing line). Sometimes you have no choice but to thread before gluing. In the case of the "Sushi" embellishment, below, I ran thread through the oval gold button before gluing the purple metal screen and carved wooden fish on top of the holes in the button.

If you are working with an embellishment like a donut or an Asian coin, you can always top it with a button that has a shank, then use that shank as the hole through which to pass your thread (see photo below right).

Last of all, let's talk about stitching the embellishment onto your shoe or purse. I recommend using double or quadruple threads (as in the Sushi embellishment, above) so you can get plenty of strength without having to take a lot of stitches. Also, whether I have pre-threaded the embellishment or not, I leave one short tail and one long one. This is because the short tail is simply going to sit there and wait to be tied into a knot when you are done stitching in and out with the longer tail.

When you attach an embellishment, you are going to tie your knot BETWEEN the shoe or purse and the embellishment, not inside the shoe or purse. This way, the knot will neither rub against your feet nor show inside your purse. It will be hidden under the embellishment itself.

Start by threading the longer tails of your beading thread through a leather needle.

1. If your embellishment is pre-threaded, go to the next step. If not, pass the needle through the loop or hole in your embellishment, leaving a short tail (say, 3"), which you'll use to knot off your thread when you're done. Now go to step 2.

2. Push the needle down into your shoe or purse directly below the hole or loop on your embellishment.

3.  Pull it through to the inside of the shoe or purse, then push it back up to the outside again.

Now you can either proceed to tie your surgeon's knots, or pass the needle through the embellishment and repeat steps 2 and 3, if you want things to be extra secure. Either way, when you are done, remove the needle and use the two tails of the thread to tie two very tight surgeon's knots.

A surgeon's knot is just like tying a square knot, except the first time you do the left-over-right sequence and loop the left tail over and then down under the right one, you are going to do an extra left-over-right loop before pulling the ends taut. This prevents the thread from slipping. The second half of the knot, the right-over-left part, is exactly the same as tying a square knot. Pull the ends taught and cut the threads about 1/4" from the knot. (If you need to see a picture of how this works, look in the Sassy Feet book or google the words "surgeons knot."

And don't worry -- it sounds a lot more complex than it really is!  I hope this discussion hasn't left you daunted about doing some button stacks of your own. It's really fun and a great chance to think (and create) outside the box! Any questions as you go, email and ask. You can always reach me at margot@sassyfeet.com.

Saga of the Skull Pillow

I've attended several quilt shows this year as a vendor in our Sassy Feet booth. It's a real pleasure to be in a room hung with gorgeous quilts and to meet some of the amazing women who make them. There are some drawbacks to displaying at a quilt show, however. The biggest is that I risk buying some of the cool stuff I see!

This happened last spring in Santa Clara, where Destiny and I had a booth right across the aisle from a very creative lady, Jane Tenorio-Coscarelli, who designs and sells quilting books, patterns, and fabric primarily with a Mexican theme. One of her quilts caught Destiny's eye.

It was called Dancing Sugar Skulls and was created to celebrate Day of the Dead. Now, for some reason, Destiny is a young woman who loves skulls. She was so enchanted with the pattern, I bought it for her and offered to make one block of the quilt as a pillow for her birthday.

I figured this would be no big deal because even though the pattern called for a lot of applique work, I could make it out of some bright pieces of wool felt I'd been hanging onto for a special project.  Then I found out that while Destiny may love skulls, she LOATHES felt. Something about its tiny little hairs projecting above the surface of the fabric makes her skin crawl.

Uh-oh.  Applique and I are not close friends. What was I going to do?? That's when I remembered that I have lots of brights scraps of leather in my stash and I could use leather instead of felt. It has the same non-ravelling properties.

So I pulled out the pattern pieces, traced them on plain paper, and cut them out. Then I dug through my stash and found leather scraps in red, lime green, purple and yellow. Good Mexicolors! I placed each of the smaller pattern pieces on the leather, traced around it, and cut everything out.  Then I found a generous-sized piece of off-white leather with a sort of crackle pattern in it -- perfect for the skull. I also grabbed a large scrap of black leather to make a background for the skull.  These I cut out with pinking shears.

Here's a closeup so you can see what I'm talking about.

I glued the leather pieces to the skull using a product called Tanner's Bond. The next step was to put a leather needle in my sewing machine, thread it with strong thread in bright red, and stitch the white leather skull to its black leather background. This took a little testing on scrap leather to get the tension right.

At this point, things got much easier as all I had to do was sew fabric, something I've been doing since I was 13. I dug through my stash and found some Kaffe Fassett fabric in two different shades. This was perfect because the pattern, which includes directions for making a pillow, calls for placing the skull on a rectangle that's offset against the rectangle that covers the pillow. I stitched the skull to the offset rectangle, then stitched the whole thing to the 16" square that would be the front of the pillow. Then I added some brightly embroidered rick-rack around the edge, leaving enough room for the seam allowance.

The pillow form itself was 16" square, but I used a trick taught to me by Betty Boster of The Cotton Ball quilt shop in Morro Bay, CA, where I live. Betty recommended that I sew the cover for a throw pillow one inch smaller than the pillow itself so that the pillow would fit snugly and puff out the cover nicely. So my pillow front and back were each 16" square, then sewn with a 1/2" seam allowance.

At this point I got fancy and put in a zipper, then seamed the front and back together on the remaining three sides (wrong sides facing, of course).

  

Even though I'm not a skull kind of girl, when I got done with this pillow I found I'd gotten sort of fond its goofy grin. And my thanks to Jane Tenorio-Coscarelli for her wonderful Sugar Skull pattern!

P.S. Destiny loved it!

When Shoes Refuse to Be Painted

Last week I talked about working with some Steve Madden shoes. This week we'll go to the opposite end of the spectrum and talk about the ulimate non-designer shoes: Crocs.  Most people either love Crocs or hate them. (If you're a Croc hater, read on anyway because you'll find ideas you can use on other shoes).

Crocs grabbed my interest as a DIY shoe designer because one of my very first DIY shoe students brought Crocs with her to class. I told her I didn't know if the Lumiere paints we were going to use would adhere. She cheerfully said she'd try it anyway. She painted her pair a gleaming Burnt Orange, and told me later that the paint peeled off the first time she wore them.

I took that as a challenge.  So I bought a pair of off-brand "Crocs" (made from EVA) and experimented. I tried sanding the surface before painting with Lumiere. The paint peeled off anyway. I tried prepping the surface by spray-painting it with a primer for plastic surfaces. Again the paint peeled off. Then I tried spray-painting them with paint from the hardware store specifically for use on plastic, like patio furniture. Guess what happened? I got so frustrated I threw them out, which is why I can't show you a photo of big sheets of paint peeling off my EVA clogs.

Okay, I thought. Some surfaces just won't take paint, and I guess EVA -- which, unlike plastic patio furniture has to flex and bend -- is one of them. So what CAN I do to them? Well, I can embellish them!

It seemed to me that the easiest way to embellish this kind of shoe was to lace and tie something through the holes so thoughtfully provided by the manufacturer. So I got some very colorful ribbon yarn and tried a number of lacing patterns. Result: Better than nothing, but nothing special. Then I got the idea to add small colored jingle bells to the mix and tie them on with lots of little knots. When I cut the yarn after each knot, I left generous tails, which were what formed the embellishment. Above is the result. I call them my Cafe Croc-a-likes.

My next step was to see what I could stitch onto a pair of Croc clones. Using my favorite design technique, the juxtaposition of opposites, I went looking through my stash of chains to see what I could use. I came up with some gunmetal-colored double curb chain, which I had bought awhile back at Ornamentea. I draped it this way and that over a red clog until I found a simple pattern that made the most of the chain. Then I got out my Dandyline beading thread and stitched down only the beginning and end points of the chains. That way, the chain would move a bit and make a nice noise when the shoes were worn. I call these my Punk Croc-a-likes.

Last of all, I decided to figure out how to glue embellishments onto EVA clogs. After experimenting with several types of glue, I determined that E6000 works best. This time I started with shocking pink clogs, black velvet ribbon and two black lace yoke appliques, usually used on V-necklines. I glued those on, let dry 24 hours, then added two little Swarovski elements for even more juice in the "juxtaposition of opposites" game.

The result is a pair of Boudoir Croc-a-likes. One note: The nice thing about using lace appliques is that you can cut them to size without worrying much about their raveling. I've used white ones on bridal shoes and a lovely slate blue pair on faux suede boots painted Burnt Orange. You can find them online by searching for "lace appliques yoke."

Questions From the Mailbag

I love it when DIY shoe lovers email me with questions about doing shoes. Here are some excerpts from the last month or so with answers about painting shoes and gluing embellishments that may help you or give you a few new ideas!

Question: I have been wanting to paint stripes down the heels of some pumps, but I don't know how to get them to come out straight and even. Any ideas?

Answer:

Yes! If you are painting wide lines, you can use masking tape from the hardware store to block off the areas that you don't want to paint.

If you are applying the masking tape over a part of the shoe that you've already painted, be sure to let that first color of paint dry for at least three days before using the masking tape. While Lumiere dries to the touch in about 15-20 minutes, depending on how thickly it's applied, it continues to "cure" for several more days.

If masking tape is too wide for your purposes, you can cut narrower strips by pressing it onto a cutting mat and using a straight edge and rotary cutter (or Exacto knife) to cut narrower strips.

If you want REALLY narrow strips, take a tip from my ingenious colleague, Destiny, and use 1/4" or 1/8" detailing tape from an auto parts store. Here's a white satin heel that she painted using detailing tape to block off the satin so she could paint pink stripes on a bridal shoe.

Now, when you are using anything to block off an area of a leather or manmade leather shoe -- whether it's masking tape, detailing tape or a stencil -- you have to expect that there will be a little leakage of the paint underneath the edges. This is because leather and manmade leather don't ABSORB paint the way fabric or paper do. Instead the paint adheres itself to the shoe like glue. So be patient and be willing to do a few touchups when you remove your tape or stencil.

Question: I was babysitting my friend's granddaughter and we decided to do flip flops. My question is, what is the best way to make sure that the things we glue on don't come off? We used a glue gun because that was all we had.

Answer: Glue guns seem like a simple solution for attaching stuff, but they're not too good on shoes. That's because the glue dries hard, stiff and white. I don't recommend it.

There IS a glue made especially for gluing decorations to flip flops, however. It's called Flip Flop Glue and it's made by Beacon. I experimented with it a couple of months ago and it really really holds stuff onto flip flops or to the rubber parts of shoes (like around the soles of sneakers). However, it's not sticky when it's wet, like some glues (especially E6000). This means you'll probably need to clamp things in place until the glue dries. It also dries clear and flexible, which is a MUST for gluing anything to shoes.

I don't carry Flip Flop Glue in the Sassy Feet store, but my local Michael's craft store carries it. I'd recommend calling before driving anywhere to buy it.

Question: I have a pair of bright pink "patent leather" clogs that have served me well but are now riddled with cracks.  What glue would work to fabric collage them?  Or what can I do to the hard shiny surface so that it will accept paint? Sand?  Acetone did nothing.

Answer: As to the acetone, you may find that it's working even if it seems like nothing is happening. All it's doing is removing a layer of finish that may be invisible to the eye. I'd recommend painting a small area that you've cleaned with acetone, waiting a couple of hours until it's good and dry, then trying to scrape off the paint with your fingernail. 

If that doesn't work (or if the cracks in your shoe are too deep for paint to cover them), try fabric collage. I prefer using The Ultimate glue by Crafter's Pick when gluing fabric to manmade leather. But, since I haven't seen your shoes, I can't tell exactly what they are made of so I'm going to recommend that you test the glue.

Using The Ultimate, apply a narrow strip of fabric to the shoe, being sure to leave one end of the strip unglued. This will give you a little tail to pull on when you are testing how well the glue worked. Let the glue dry overnight, then try to pull off the fabric. If it's hard to pull off, you've got yourself the right glue!

Also, have you seen the how-to information on the Sassy Feet site about doing fabric collage on shoes? If not, go to the How-To page and click on the Doing Fabric Collage link.

That's it for today! If you have questions on DIY shoe design, painting, or embellishment, email me at margot@sassyfeet.com. I'll answer your email promptly and may post it later in this blog.

Little Beauty #3

I continue to be fascinated with painting and embellishing little shoulder bags. (See my earlier posts, Time on My Shoulder and Little Beauty #2.) Actually, this one didn't start out as a shoulder bag; it had handles. But I took care of that with my trusty scissors!

Here's the "before" shot. It's a new purse of manmade leather that I picked up in a thrift store. First, I cut the handles off and glued flat the little raised areas where the handles had been been attached to the body of the bag. Next I painted the top part of the bag and the piping around the edge with a mixture of Metallic Olive Green with a little Citrine. The rest of the bag I painted with Metallic Rust.

Then I glued down three swaths of trim, starting at the top and overlapping raw edges as necessary: dark gold lace, leopard-print grosgrain ribbon (7/8" wide), and wide sequinned trim. I used The Ultimate glue for this since it works best -- in my opinion -- for gluing fabric to painted surfaces. I then glued red ribbon leaf trim over the grosgrain ribbon.

 

I attached a heavy upholstery cord to serve as a shoulder strap by cutting little slits in each side of the purse, squeezing E6000 glue into the slits, then feeding in the ends of the 32" cord I had cut. (I had glued together the cut ends of the cord first, using Fabritac fabric glue). Once the cord was inserted, I clamped it with oversize plastic spring clamps from the hardware store and let the glue dry for 24 hours. (I love the little spring clamps in the Sassy Feet store, but sometimes they're just too small.)

Now it was time for the finishing touches, you know, the things you do at the very end of project -- sometimes planned, sometimes not -- that really make it POP!  I rooted around in my stash of vintage watch faces and found one in a burnished gold color. It even had the hour hand still on it. I placed it atop three green embroidered leaf appliques and attached the whole thing with E6000. Finally I dug out the luxuriously oversized tassel I had bought to go with the upholstery cord and stitched it on.

The end result is the third purse in my "Little Beauty" series, which I call "Harvest Time." Do I get to say TA-DA? Well, consider it said!

Going Dotty

 On Saturday I posted about redoing some Teva sandals, a project that included dotting the straps and footbed with various size polka dots. 

There are lots of ways of making polka dots with paint. Some people use toothpicks for tiny dots and the eraser ends of pencils for larger ones. I was looking for something that would make reliably round dots in several sizes and found the perfect tool.

Now, you have to understand that I am a tool addict. I LOVE having the perfect tool to do the job, and as long as it's not prohibitively expensive, I'll buy it. Last year I found just the thing for making dots like these. It's a paint brush called a Colour Shaper. Instead of a brush at the end, it's got a silicone tip, which comes in different shapes and sizes.

The one I like for making dots is the taper point soft, size #6 (the larger brush shown below). I also use a taper point firm, size #2, which is smaller.

 

Now, I'm not generally a polka dot kind of girl. But there are times when I want to be silly, like when I painted the Teva sandals, and times when the dots work with the design I'm doing. 

For example, I was doing a pair of summer wedges a while back, and I wanted to transform them from something you'd wear to a yacht club social to a style with a little edginess to it. I started by painting the pink fabric with Really Red glitter paint. Big improvement! But a problem remained: the rubber sole was white and had two red lines running around it. Not edgy. And since you can't paint rubber (unless you're willing to spend $50 a gallon for specialty paint), you are limited to tinting it with a Sharpie or gluing something over it.

So I rummaged through my stash of trim and found the perfect thing: black snap tape with red plastic snaps. I bought some of the new Flip Flop Glue from Beacon (E6000 would have worked, but I wanted to see if this new stuff was any good) and glued it down. (The Flip Flop Glue held really well, but I had to clamp the tape in place until it dried because this glue isn't sticky when it comes out of the tube, the way E6000 is.) Great transformation, especially after I painted the insole black!

But a plain black insole wouldn't do. So I decided to mirror the shapes on the snap tape with dots around the edge of the insole. This is when I started my search for a brush that would do the job for me. I found my first Colour Shaper in my local Michael's craft store. The result was a row of identical, almost perfectly round dots. Very satisfying.

 

Here is a VERY LARGE photo of the result so you can admire my handiwork! It also gives you a good closeup of the snap tape.

Fabric Collage on Shoes

Before I got into doing shoes, I was a long-time lover of sewing. Still am, as a matter of fact. It's just that now my fabric stash is being used in the creation of one-of-a-kind fabric collage shoes. 

Last summer I raided my stash of quilting cottons and pulled out a number of Lonni Rossi prints in black, gold and red. I'd bought a half-yard of each years ago with an idea of making... something.  Now I wanted to cover a little suede bootie I'd bought from Newport News, which is a great source of inexpensive leather shoes.

With pinking shears and Fabri-Tac (a fabric glue I like for adhering fabric to leather), I snipped and glued my way around that bootie until it was transformed from dull blue-gray (picture at right, below)to glorious red and black.

I covered the collar of the bootie with black fold-over elastic, replaced the original laces with the same elastic, and added tassels and little brass bells for a final sassy touch. (Can you guess where the bells came from? A belly-dance store!) 

I've been showing this shoe and a couple of other fabric-collage shoes I've created to quilting guilds around Northern California and the quilters love it! If you love it, too, check out the little booklet in the Sassy Feet store about how to create fabric-collage shoes.

The Ups, Downs, and Workarounds of Adding Bling to Shoes

In the late 1980s through the late 1990s, I studied Zen and learned how not to be so impatient with myself, others, and inanimate objects. This was really, really useful when I started applying Swarovski flatback crystals to shoes....

 First of all, I had to accept that just because a glue manufacturer or the people who make "hot fix" crystals (the kind you apply with a little heat wand) say their products will work on leather, it ain't necessarily so. I tested a bunch of different gem-adhereing glues that SAID they worked on leather, only to discover that most did a pretty lousy job.  I did find a couple that worked, though, namely Beacon 527 (formerly called 527 Bond) and E6000.

Actually, what I found were glues that worked only on the parts of shoes that didn't bend or get twisted while they were being worn. So, crystals glued to heels, as on the shoe above, worked fine. A line of crystals down the back seam of a shoe, like the ones my creative partner Destiny Carter put on Diva Couture, below left, worked fine. What didn't work was gluing crystals onto the strap of a slingback (below, right). As soon as I tried to slide the strap over my heel, the crystals popped off! It was very sad, 'cause they LOOKED gorgeous!

   

The problem was, although the glue I used dried clear and flexible -- like it was supposed to -- there's NOTHING flexible about the flat back side of a size 16ss Swarovski crystal! When the leather strap bent, something had to give and it wasn't going to be the crystal. So it was the glue.

Frustration, however, is the mother of invention, and when Destiny Carter was working on creating her Pirate Girl purse, we came up with a workaround. She had found a cool hot-fix motif of a skull  and wanted it front and center on her purse. (She got hers at Walmart; there's a wide selection of hot fix motifs, also called rhinestone appliques, online at Threadart.com) How were we going to do it?

That's when common sense struck: Hot fix motifs are made to be ironed onto fabric -- so that's what we did. We found black cotton fabric to match the black color she had painted the purse and ironed on the skull motif. Then we outlined the motif with Fray Check, let it dry, and cut away the extra fabric. Finally we glued the fabric to the painted surface of the purse (which was manmade leather) using The Ultimate. (The Ultimate is far and away the best glue for attaching fabric to surfaces painted with acrylic paint like Lumiere and Neopaque, which are the paints we use.)

When we were done, it looked exactly as if the crystals had been glued onto the purse itself. And they have stayed put over time. Ta-da! (If we do say so ourselves....)

The pink bag above right is the "before" of Destiny's purse. (You can find "bustier" purses like this on ebay.) Below it is the "after" version. If you want to know the secret of the wonderful chain she used for a strap, read the description in the Sassy Feet purse gallery.