Shoe Makeover

I don't know about you, but I think Pinterest is about the coolest thing on the interwebs right now. I love seeing what other people create and getting inspired to make things I would never have thought of before.

Example: My sister pinned these shoes last week. Not sure what the source is, but aren't they beautiful?

As soon as I saw them I thought, "I could do this myself!" I rifled through my closet, sewing boxes, and craft closet and came downstairs with a pair of dark red pumps, some black stretch lace I had from an old shirt, white glue, a foam brush, clothes pins, and brown craft paper.

I laid the craft paper over my kitchen table to protect it, then mixed the white glue 50/50 with water to make homemade mod podge.

I cut two pieces of lace that would cover the shoes completely. Starting at the tip of the shoe, I applied a thick layer of mod podge, laid the lace on top, then applied more mod podge. I worked like this all the way around the shoe, not worrying too much about the edges yet. I didn't worry about getting any mod podge on the sole or heel because I knew I could clean it later with water. I used masking tape in an attempt to keep the lace in place, but it didn't work so well. I think pins would have worked better.

When I got to the heel, I used my fabric scissors to trim the lace around the back, creating a seam that I overlapped slightly. Because it's lace the overlapping fabric looked fine and the seam wasn't noticeable.

I let this first coat of mod podge dry overnight. The next day I used fabric scissors to roughly trim closer to the edges of the shoe. I then applied a second coat of mod podge, paying special attention to any place there could be more friction (the heel and along the sole).

I used clothes pins to hold any lace in place that wouldn't cooperate. In retrospect I wish I would have put a piece of waxed paper between the clothes pins and lace because when the glue dried the clothes pins stuck and it was hard to remove them without removing the lace pieces.

Once the shoes were completely dry I went over them again with the exacto knife, cutting along the seams and carefully pulling off all the excess lace. I used a bit more mod podge to touch up any areas that still weren't completely adhered to the shoe.

The last thing I did was take some cotton swabs and water and clean the mod podge off the heel and sole of the shoes.

What do you think? They turned out so much better than I thought they would!

Obviously these aren't shoes to wear in inclement weather, and putting a couple coats of some kind of clear sealer would be a good idea.

I think they look great! My husband calls them my vampire shoes, so I may have to wear them on Thursday when I go see the midnight premier of Breaking Dawn!