shoe project: pair 3

back to my shoe project (quick recap: i bought seven pairs of plain colored cotton china doll shoes that i'm experimenting with), this is pair three. i've done the red and yellow pairs thus far, this time i went with my favorite color: pink. and i was feeling like a nice plaid pattern would be great with pink and to try out some new fabric markers. so, you'd think that since they are called fabric markers that they wouldn't bleed - especially when the label specifically says that they won't...well, they do. i drew my initial lines with red and blue marker. already they were bleeding like crazy so i went in to fix it mode (i seem to do that a lot with my crafting). so first step to attempt to save these shoes was to color in between the red lines - fill it in with red altogether. that helped but that dark blue line had bled too much and it just looked bad. then i had this red and white candy striped seam binding that i've been wanting to use on something for a while, so i stitched that to all the trimming around the shoe. that looked really cute but i was still not liking the fabric marker bleed lines, so i decided to embroider over the lines. i had red and yellow embroidery floss on hand so i went with those colors and i just love them. now these are the best pair yet, i think. i can't wait to wear them - now if we can get past this snow and rain season so i can wear cute shoes without ruining them.

to view the other shoes:
http://boogiebeans.blogspot.com/search/label/shoe

shoe project: pair 2

i mentioned a while back that i bought seven pairs of plain colored china doll shoes that i plan on experimenting with - here's the second pair. you can see the first pair here: http://boogiebeans.blogspot.com/2010/07/shoe-project-pair-1.html
i think these turned out super cute - too bad i have already ruined them and will be attempting to bleach them and start over with them as white, adding an eighth pair of shoes for experimentation. the supplies for these shoes are a black fine point sharpie (which i don't think was a great option, should have gone with a fabric pen - i know that now), a blue paint pen and a couple of cute buttons. i simply drew circles on each pair of shoes (there are fewer circles as you go towards the heel of the shoe), colored a few select ones in with the paint pen and then sew on a button to each shoe. i like that i used a different scale on each shoe, i think i'll go with that idea on another pair and i'll be reusing these buttons (i'm in a houndstooth mood lately) since i ruined these shoes (yes, when your shoes are drying or sitting around waiting to be put away try to refrain from leaving them in the reach of a cat who likes to drag anything and everything into her water dish to sit and soak).

UPDATE: i finally got around to trying to bleach these shoes to start over. well, i must have the weakest bleach ever made because all it did was clean up the shoe! seriously, the circles are all still there, all the color is there, it just cleaned up where all the ink bled from getting wet. i don't think i even need to go over the circles again with a fabric pen. i think all i need to do is sew the buttons back on and they will be wearable! yay. of course when you don't want to get bleach on something it ruins your favorite shirt - go figure.

shoe project: pair 1

i bought seven pairs of plain different colored china doll cotton shoes and am planning on experimenting with each pair.  this is the first pair that i've made. first of all, for alex's 4th birthday party (months and months away) the theme is an alice in wonderland tea party and i'm supposed to be the red queen. these are going to be my red queen shoes, the fabric on the flowers is the same fabric that i am using for my skirt. so first thing i did with these shoes was to try to screenprint a houndstooth white print on them. i've never tried screenprinting shoes before, it wasn't awesome. but then i took a black sharpie and outlined some of the pattern and i think that saved it - i don't mind it looking rough and unfinished, that's kind of the look i'm going for. when i tried ironing in the screenprint (not that i plan on running in the rain or snow in these but still wanted to try to set them a little) the white seemed to soak in a little and fade but that's ok. then i cut out circles of skirt fabric in sheer red, black and white polka dot and yellow stripe (which you can't see in this photo) and used a red button to make flowers to embellish each shoe. overall, i like how they turned out and i think they'll look super cute with my red queen skirt once i actually make that.