November 13, 2013

Recovering Shoes - a step by step how to guide

Now that Halloween is over I can breathe for just a moment. My girls were Tinker Bell and Periwinkle based from Disney's movie Secret of the Wings. I was super excited for the request and the chance to make wings again, cause let's be honest, little fairies are just cute.  The movie takes place in winter fairyland which is a bonus for staying warm while trick or treating. As part of their designs, I needed shoes that matched their outfits and is the focus of my post today. Tinker Bell wears boots and Periwinkle wears slip-on style slippers. I pulled shoes from the girls' closet according to overall shape and ones that would be easy to sew through, so no leather.


I learned to recover shoes in grad school and was taught to actual separate the sole from the main part of the shoe, not completely but enough to stuff about 1/2" or so of fabric into, and gluing everything back together with Barge cement. This method is a permanent change and I wanted to undo what I was doing.

                                                              This is the shoe before:

Girls red shoe



Recovering a shoe starting with the toe
The fabric used for this project was stretch velour. I placed it on the shoe with the greatest stretch running from side to side. (If you are using a woven fabric then you will need to use the fabric on the bias).










Anchor the fabric to the shoe with pins

I used a lot of pins and stabbed them straight in the shoe, right above the rubber sole.


Trim excess fabric

After the fabric was draped and pinned in place, I trimmed off excess fabric leaving about 3/8" to turn under.


Turn under the seam allowances and pin




Here, I turned the seam allowance and repinned.



Recovered shoe ready to sew



Ready to sew.




Sewing new shoe cover with a straight needle



A curved needle would have been nice at this point but I made it work.


Finished shoe cover




All finished except the puff ball.

 I added puff balls and fur trim. 

Fairy costumes with custom covered shoes
The fairies exploring the outdoors.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous3:16 PM

    I didnʻt realize you made the shoes too!
    Angela

    ReplyDelete