Feet of Flames!

Sometimes at work they make me wear safety shoes. This makes me sad. Safety shoes are not pretty.

 

I know they're black, but that doesn't mean they go with everything. At all. So I decided they needed titivating. I thought about glittering them. I thought about bedazzling. I considered lace, florals, and even vintage trims, but after a thorough root around my fabric stash I decided that I needed . . .

 

Feet of Flames!!!

 

 

First of all I unclipped the heel straps and put them to one side. Then I laid the fabric across each shoe and cut a chunk out that covered the big ugly front. As these are a clog I decided that this would be enough flame for me, but of course if you are recovering a shoe with sides and a back, or a wedge heel, you will need to cut a big enough piece to cover the whole area.

 

The next step is to slather the area to be covered with a generous amount of PVA glue. Don't worry if the glue gets 'outside the lines', it dries clear and won't show at all.

When your shoe is slathered, place your fabric on top and smooth it down. This is a bit tricky as you're essentially trying to make a flat piece of fabric cover a curved surface, but the glue makes the fabric wet and it will stretch a little. You may have a few creases around the toe but don't worry, I have a plan. When you're happy with the position, push the fabric into the crease around the sole using your thumbnail, or a pencil or something ~ you're trying to make a good clear crease to use as a guide for trimming your excess fabric off.

Using a pair of old scissors (you really don't want to get your best sewing scissors all gluey!) trim away the excess fabric around the outer edges of the shoe, smoothing down as you go. Do it as neatly as you can but don't worry if your trimming is a little raggedy, remember, I have a plan! Leave about an inch or so of overlap around the part where your foot goes in, and cut a series of slits in the overlapping part. This will make it wrap over more easily. Put a good layer of glue on each piece and tuck it under.

Those pesky little flaps will want to pop open, especially if your shoes are fabric-lined like mine. So I pegged mine until the glue dried.

Remember my cunning plan to hide the raggedy edges? All you need to do is glue a piece of trim or ribbon around the edge to finish it off nicely. I went for a piece of gold cord. As my cord was quite stiff, and PVA is pretty slow to dry, I used my hot glue gun to attach it, but if you're adding something more supple like ribbon you can probably get away with PVA for this bit too. Hot glue guns are a bit mozzarella-y, but you can trim or pick the stray strands off when the glue has dried.

Tada! Feet of Flames!!!

 

 

They still don't go with anything, but they definitely look awesome, and that's what matters ;)