Shoe Refashion with Acrylic Paint

Shoe Refashion!

Lately, I've had this obsession with ballet flats.  I have this one pair that are navy blue and have a flowered print on them...they are my favorite! And I've gotten so many compliments on them.  I got them on sale at Gabes for $7.99! 

So, now I want to have a pair of ballet flats for every outfit. =)

 And I decided to make some purple flats!

I love how these turned out!

To refashion a pair of shoes like this you'll need:

Shoes (Mine cost $3 and I got them at goodwill...surprise, surprise ;) )

Rubbing Alcohol

Acrylic Paint

Mod Podge

Scissors

Paint Brush

Hot Glue

This is how the shoes looked before I did anything to them.

I grabbed my scissors and snipped off that stringy bow.

The next move was to pour rubbing alcohol on a cotton swab, tissue, etc...I used toilet paper.  I rubbed that alcohol soaked t.p. all over the outside of the shoes. This step strips off that shiny coating from the shoe and helps the acrylic paint "stick" to your shoe.

Next, I let the shoe dry.  This didn't take long. 



On to the painting....

The paint I used was acrylic craft paint in the color Plum.

I brushed on a thin coat of paint on the shoe. I used an actual paintbrush. However, if you don't want to deal with any stray bristles that might fall off, you could also use a sponge brush.

This is what one coat of paint looks like: 

I let each coat of paint dry completely before adding another coat. I ended up doing about 6 coats of paint.

After the last coat of paint dried, I painted one coat of mod podge (I used generic homemade mod podge on mine).

This is how they look after the coat of mod podge dried.

Now I had to decide what embellishment I wanted on this shoe. I originally wanted a white lace bow on each one.  However, when I sewed the little bow and held it up, it wasn't a great look.

Then it dawned on me that my boyfriend's grandmother had just given me a HUGE bag of buttons!

So I searched through the treasure trove of buttons and found these:

My 6 year old daughter suggested that we make these into earrings. But seeing as how I'm not a Golden Girl, I decided they would look better on a pair of shoes than on my ear lobes. ;)

 I started out by hand sewing the buttons on to keep them in place.

And to keep the buttons from moving around, I used hot glue to really secure them on the shoe. 



And this is the finished product!

Cute, right? 

And I have the most perfect sweater to go with my new shoes! YAY! =D



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Shirt Too Big? Not A Problem!

I just love long shirts. And one problem I'm having lately is finding shirts long enough.  Most of the ones I find are usually short and I have to keep pulling them down as to not show skin.  I think I've finally found a solution to this problem!

I'm just gonna buy shirts way to big on me and alter them everywhere, but the length.  It's alot easier to do than I thought! 

While I was out of town this Christmas, I made a stop at an out-of-town Goodwill.

I loved it! That place was huge, the prices were great, and the merchandise was really nice.  I wanted to get some sweaters to refashion, and since I wasn't familiar with the layout of this particular Goodwill, I started out looking at the Plus size rack by accident.  That's when I spotted this beauty.  It's gold with sparkly thread going through it.  It was also 5 sizes too big.  But I wasn't gonna let that be a problem. 

Before I get started, I would like to point out that in the before picture (with shoulder pads), this shirt totally looks like something Blanche Devereaux from the Golden Girls or Charlene Frazier from Designing Women would wear.

This is what I did....

First, I cut off the shoulder pads.

Next, I carefully cut off the sleeves along the seams.

armhole without the sleeve

sleeves

I tried on the sweater inside out and pinned the shirt closer to my body starting at the armpit (which is gonna be huge because the shirt was 5 sizes too big). 

Next, I tried on one of the sleeves (inside out) and pinned the fabric to make it fit tighter on my arm.  Then I did the same thing with the other sleeve.

I put the sweater in the sewing machine and sewed along the line of pins.

This is what the seams should look like now.

At this point, I turned the shirt right side out and tried it on to make sure I took in the fabric enough.

Next, I turned the shirt inside out again, and pinned the sleeves (also inside out) to the shirt. I started pinning at the top at the shoulder seam and pinned until the pieces on both sides of the shoulder seam met at the armpit seam.  If there is excess fabric (and there probably will be), it's ok. You'll just trim that off later after you sew the sleeve to the shirt.



Then I put it in the machine and sewed along the pin line.



Once I did that on both sides,

 I tried on the shirt right side out just to make sure everything looked right.

And it did!

 YAY! =) 

 I wore this shirt on New Years Eve. And it was super comfy and pretty!

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