Old lady shoes to Lumpy Space Princess shoes!

Hello! I'm on uni break! Huzzah! Now, don't get me wrong, I love studying and I love my course but after finishing off three massive final essays, I am so so so glad not to have to reference anything for almost two months ^___^ *And* it means that I have more time to actually spend time with my friends and family, and, of course, do many many crafts! I'm currently working on a Lumpy Space Princess cosplay for Supanova and I'm quite pleased with how it's coming along. I'll take lots of photos of it on the day, but until then, I thought you might like to take a look at my special glittery shoes ^___^

Aren't they mathematical? ~___^ One of the hardest things about cosplaying (and, to be honest, general fashion) for me is the shoes. I have dreadful flat feet so if I want to walk around for longer than half an hour without pain, I have to wear special orthotic shoes with my orthotic inserts. I love my inserts for, you know, allowing me to walk properly, but finding cute orthotic shoes is so hard! If any shoe companies are listening; vintage style orthotic shoes would be good for both actual old ladies and old ladies at heart! ~___^

 

So anyway, I found these Kumfs at an op-shop and since they were my size and only $3, I brought them even though beige isn't really my colour. Wanna guess how many times I wore them? Yup, about zero. I tried them on with so many outfits, but I just couldn't make them work. Which was kinda good because it meant I had no regrets covering them in glitter!

 

      

To do this, I covered the shoes in a layer of glitter mod podge and then, with the shoes sitting in a small metal box, I shook purple glitter all over them. For the first couple of layers I didn't do anything on the straps, which made it easier to move the shoes around without getting mod podge and/or glitter all over me. Well, I still got glitter everywhere, but that's just an occupational hazard ~___^

 

I did about three layers of glitter and modpodge on the shoes, one layer on the straps, and then an additional two layers of modpodge over everything to seal it.

However, when I tried to buckle up the shoes, I ended up taking off a layer of glitter from the straps. They were also quite difficult to get through the buckle as the modpodge made them both thicker and stiffer. Bummer! >___<

 

I decided that covering up the straps was the way to go, so I picked up some lovely thick satin ribbon from the craft store and made up some bows ^___^ To make the bows I used two long lengths of ribbon (about 37cm/14.5 inches) and two short lengths (about 4cm/ 1.5 inches). I sealed the ends by passing them through the flame on a match, then sewed the ends of the long ribbon together to make a circle. With the smaller lengths, I sewed the non-sealed edges together to make it into a thinner tube.

 

I flattened out the circle made from the longer pieces of ribbon and pinched it in the middle - this is where it starts looking like a bow! ^___^ I put a couple of stitches in to make sure it wouldn't move, then I wrapped the small tube around the center of the bow and sewed the sealed edges together. The center of the bow was too small to cover up the clip-on earring bases I wanted to use to attach it to the straps, and I wanted to ensure the bow would lay relatively flat to cover up the ends of the shoe straps. So I hot glued two clip-on earring backs to each ribbon; they are positioned so when the bows are clipped onto the shoe, they cover the whole strap ^___^

 

The inside of the shoes are still not that pretty, but that won't be obvious once they're on my feet so I haven't done anything to them. I'm still working on the dress to go with them, and I'm also making a matching purple glittery handbag! I'm really pleased with how these turned out, and I'm really looking forward to wearing them to the con!

I can't wait to show you the finished cosplay, it's going to be very purple and very glittery and totally fresh to death! ~___^

- Lisa xx