More Fun

I am on a big clothing-altering kick and having a blast with it. I was reading Altered Couture magazine and read the article about altering shoes with PVA glue. Something clicked, and I HAD to have shoes to alter. So I went out and bought ballet flats because I figured they would be less subject to wrinkling through bending than regular shoes. I also figured it would be simpler to alter something without laces. So for my first two pairs of altered shoes, I did one in Lumieres and one with batik fabrics from my stash. The one in Lumieres was very easy and fun to do. I painted it all over (except the upper edge) with Indigo Metallic Lumiere. Then after that dried, I did swipes in Blue Pearl and Purple Pearl (not sure of those are the exact color names and too tired and comfy to go look right now, but it's something very close to that). I was excited but knew I wasn't done. I wore them to school that way. The kids really liked them. One of them suggested I add green. Now to me that sounded ugly for about 30 seconds, and then I thought, wait, it might really pop against the darker/cooler colors. So that evening I added Interference Blue (which I think they call Hi Lite Blue) and Emerald Pearl. I put the Emerald Pearl on in small spots. My student was right, the color really popped. It totally made those shoes.

The second pair of shoes was also easy to do. I cut up some batiked cotton fabric into ovals and circles and applied them to the shoes with PVA glue (if you need to know how, let me know and I'll explain). I let that dry. Then I had a flash--what if Lumieres were compatible with PVA glue? So I took a piece of leftover batiked cotton and put PVA glue on it. I let it dry for 8 hours. Then I painted it with the Lumiere Indigo paint and let that dry for several hours. It melded very nicely with the PVA'd fabric (could not be peeled off or separated). So then I went ahead and painted the shoes with Blue Pearl, going over the parts of the shoe not covered by the fabric (except the upper edges and the bow). That looked great to me; the color went nicely with the batik. I let that dry for a day or so, then cut out some other batik fabrics in circles and ovals and adhered them with PVA. When it was dry, I decided I liked the look and stopped there (though I may yet add more to it if inspiration strikes).

I went to Famous Footwear looking for another pair of shoes to alter and came home with four! They were having a great clearance, and I got four nice pairs for $30 or so. These have better soles than the ones I got at the other store, which is good because I found the original ones were a bit hard on my feet because of lack of padding and arch support. I have already started altering one of the new pairs (with Emerald Pearl paint), so most likely I'll have more to post in awhile.