New Shoes

 

Not these.  These are my old shoes.  I bought them probably 20 years ago at Target.  I didn't start wearing them until about 4 years ago though.  I loved the style and the star pattern but couldn't figure out what to wear them with...duh, pretty much anything!  I stumbled across them in the back of my closet when I was doing my Kon-Mari-ing, basically brand new, and they are most definitely joy sparkers.  I have worn them just about everyday since.  They started to get a bit ratted out, fabric splitting, over a year ago.  I decided that was fine, it made them look kinda punk rock.  Now though, the plastic sole is cracking and more fabric is getting skanked out, their grunge look appeal is heading toward crackhead skid row-esque.

They certainly aren't making these anymore so I had to take matters into my own hands!

I bought a pair of inexpensive black slip-on shoes from walsmarts (10 bucks).

Dug out my fabric paint, a star paper punch, old scrap vinyl, and a paint brush.

Here's an image of the process.  It's fairly self explanatory:  Punch out stars from vinyl, press stencils firmly onto shoes, paint with fabric paint.

Ooooh!!! Stary!!!

I worked on these off and on for a couple of days.  They were extremely fun/relaxing/therapeutic to do.  I don't make very many crafts (other than food) anymore since my house is already at max capacity.  For the past several years I do crafting that is for temporary use such as birthday or holiday decor.  I craft presents around the holidays for others but they aren't stuff that is my style. I do a lot of utilitarian  crafting to repair stuff or make things we need like face masks.  There's not so much in those kinda things that the process is enjoyable or even the finished product.  I think my Boston Terrier Paint By Numbers were the last involved craft project I have done, and that was a bit of a pain in the beginning with making the outlines and paints.  The fun didn't come in until the painting part. But these shoes were quick satisfaction from start to finish and cheap!  I love cheap.

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Here's a bonus bit for this post. Back in Jan 2019 I helped a friend of mine run a craft class that was personalizing these same kinda slip-on shoes using fabric.

She charged like 50 bucks for the class with all supplies included.  As all are very much aware, I am a cheap skate.  There is no way I would have paid this.  These shoes are 10 bucks, the fabric can be remnants, so total investment is maybe 12 bucks.  But my friend has got a damn good stash of hip fabric so that could have been worth it to most.

This is just one box of several she brought:

Lots of cool stuff...comics, video games, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Disney, Universal Monsters, Nightmare before Christmas, Halloween, NASA....all of that licensed stuff.  Also believe it or not there are people out there that need help crafting.  She had like 20 people sign up!  

Here are a just a few of the crafted shoes I was able to get a photo of (click to enlarge):

Some people brought their our shoes also, as seen with the high top Converse with Wonder Woman.

I liked the way the shoe on the far left was done.  The crafter choose to cover the entire shoe rather than do a collage which makes it look "real".  The 'How -To' for this is just mod podge fabric onto a pair of shoes...that's it.  I have a feeling that over time the stars on my new shoes are gonna start flaking off (I think my paint may be 15 years old!) so I might try this technique to cover up the start of any skank shoe look!