I thought I'd try my hand at creating a version of one of my favorite pairs of extant shoes, found in the Manchester City Galleries:
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| Manchester City Galleries - 1770, made of wool and silk |
Want to follow along? Here's how it went...
Materials/Supplies:
- 1 pair of Devonshire 18th century shoes (click to buy)
- Angelus leather preparer
- Angelus leather paints
- Angelus acrylic finisher
- paintbrushes
- fabric glue pen
- 1 package of white bias tape, 1/4" wide double fold
- chip clips, etc.
- glue-on rhinestones (optional)
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| Start with a pair of Devonshires |
1. First, wipe the shoe with Angelus Leather Preparer. This takes off the sealer that's sprayed on the leather, allowing your paints to stick.
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| Important stuff! |
2. Next, start painting. You can mix Angelus Leather Paints just like regular acrylic paints, to achieve various colors. I wanted a bright-arse Barbie pink, so I added red to my soft pink. Remember that the color dries darker.
3. For the diamond pattern, I chose to paint mine on by hand, but applying silver trim, using your glue pen, would also be awesome and probably look better than what my shaky hands produced. If you are thinking of using a metallic paint, be sure to get the leather paint, as it's far thicker and easier to use than regular acrylic.
4. And because I'm cheesy, I put a few rhinestones on the toe of the shoe.
5. When all your painting is complete, brush on a coat of acrylic finisher to seal everything in and keep it looking swish.
6. Now it's time for binding. You can't run a needle through these leather shoes, but glue works splendidly. Use a glue pen, like the one shown here, and little-by-little, apply the bias to the edges of the shoe, clamping with the chip clips to keep in place while the glue dries. This is a very time consuming step, but it looks fab in the end.
Binding can be difficult. Use the clips to aid you. When you get to the zig zag, trim the bias and hold in place. A piece of ribbon or any kind of trim would also work here.
I bound the latchets, the tongue, and also ran a strip down the seam at the back, and where the white parts of the latchets meet the pink.
7. And there ya go. Add a buckle - if you've bound your latchets, I recommend the square rhinestone slide, or the round rhinestone slide buckles, as the binding adds extra bulk to the latchets, and you'll have a hard time fitting them through the other slide buckles we sell. You can also loop your latchets, or use genuine shoe buckles, to keep your shoes closed.
These Pretty Pretty Pink Princess Shoes are pretty over-the-top, but there are literally hundreds of images of extant 18th century shoes to inspire your creativity. I've collected some on my "Historical Shoes" Pinterest board here.
P.S. I don't get a kick-back from Dharma Trading Co, or Angelus. The Angelus products just really are great, and Dharma has a huge selection and great prices. :-)
