labricoleuse | Project: Another shoe modification--"rockabilly meets Hairspray"

My Decorative Arts students are moving on to their second unit, which is on the topic of footwear. We discuss not only shoes and boots (both soft and structured), but also other foot-related accessories like spats and gaiters. They will create two pairs of footwear, one simple and one complex.

I always try to do a practical example ahead of the class, either a sampler-style example (like my glove sewn in contrasting thread illustrating the different methods of glove-seaming) or an actual project of the kind they are expected to do. For this unit, i showed them several previous projects of this sort (like my poulaines, my knitted ladies spats, and my earlier shoe modification), but also did a new pair of modified shoes.

Above you see a pair of plain-ish white eyelet wedges i purchased at Target for around $10. The unadulterated shoe is in the foreground and in the back you can see me draping muslin on the other shoe to create a pattern for the upper. The ground is the fabric the new shoes will be covered with. My general goal was to turn these rather sober, unexciting wedges into a pair of bright, primary-colored shoes that looked like the bastard child of rockabilly and Hairspray.

upper pattern shape, ready to cut

upper with center back heel seam sewn, positioned on base shoe

Above you can see how the cover looks pinned into place. If you're doing these sorts of shoe modifications for streetwear use, you might choose to use a fabric glue to adhere the cover to the base shoe (with a few strategic thread tacks perhaps); for theatrical purposes, i always choose stitching over adhesives if at all possible, to allow for easy future alterations or changes. I stitched the cover to the base shoe all around the sole and opening.

Inspired by the lengthy rickrack discussion in a previous post, i went pretty crazy with rickrack trim on the shoe, also stitched on. I'd been planning to cover the wedge itself with fabric as well, but instead decided at this point to paint it red. Above you can see how i've masked off the upper of the shoe and the sole rubber for painting. I used common craft acrylic in a bright red.

waiting for paint to dry...

vamp trim detail

My last step was to add a little splurt of trim--ribbons and vintage buttons--to the vamp and voila! My hypothetical actress is well-shod to jitterbug with Elvis now!