You can also use this tutorial and barrettes instead of quilting clips to make hair pieces.
-The shoes, with the removable ankle buckles taken off. If you want the shoes a different color than black, I recommend either spray-on floral paint, Krylon brand spraypaint (it binds to plastic) and some sort of sealant (matte or glossy). Always spray in a well-ventilated area, in thin, even layers.
-Several widths of ribbon in the color you want- a 2" ribbon to make the base bow, a 1/2" ribbon for the straps, and smaller ribbon if you want to decorate it a bit
-Metallic quilting clips; found in the sewing section.
-Sharp fabric scissors
-Hot glue gun and extra sticks
-A package of 2 or more silk flowers. If you can get these in the color you need, that's awesome. (i got purple because they didn't have black and it would show the least; if doing a different color, i recommend getting white for a more pure color change)
-A Sharpee in the color you want and/or India Ink (I recommend India Ink; there's hundreds of colors of it, it's easy to use, fairly inexpensive, in most craft stores, water soluble for gradation, and it is way better than the marker for coloration- you'll see that later)
-A needle and thread (any color)
-A movie for background noise (not pictured :P)
Go ahead and start the movie.
Start the hot glue gun heating.
Take the 1/2" ribbon and tie it around your leg how long you want/need it to be. I used almost the whole spool for mine, and I can easily crisscross the ribbon up my leg and tie it with room to spare. Cut off what you need for each leg, and using the hot glue gun, seal the ends. (This can also be done with clear nail polish)
Let the glue cool on that, and take your marker/India ink and start coloring. I recommend running the inkwell stick along the very edge of the flower petals, and using a 1/2" wide, flat brush to paint down and into the flower. You'll mostly only see this from the top/front, so it's not important to get all of every petal; just what shows.
A side by side comparison of India ink(left) and Sharpee(right). You can see bits of the original purple on the Sharpee flower, and while the marker does a good job of making it darker, it really doesn't compare to the results of the flower colored with India ink.
This is for the bow: it gets a little complicated, so I included an awesome MSpaint diagram.
Take your 2" wide ribbon, and fold it in half. Cut it at the half mark, and you have your two pieces for the base bow.
1- Fold each piece again in half. This will mark the center of the bow.(RED DOT)
2- Mark the center in some way- I usually fold a sharp crease. Take the ends of the ribbon and put them along the center fold, making sharp creases where they fold over. This will make the yellow dot parts you see.
3-Fold over on those sharp creases, so they meet the middle sharp crease, and pin it down someway- you can use the quilting clips for this easily. Flip the remaining ribbon outward, so that the folds look like a sort of zigzag. This will create the green dots.
To get the ends of the bow to angle down (if you want. I think it makes it look more like a bow, so I do it), cross over the bottom edge so instead of a straight line, you have an angle going where the last creases meet. (Lower right hand corner)
Glue down every crease with hot glue, pressing the fabric together so they will stick together. Let the glue cool and harden.
Cut the tag ends of the ribbon tails down, either straight on or at an angle, and seal the ends with a thin layer of hot glue.
Take the needle and thread, and do a quick stitch through the center (I believe it's called a basting stitch) and pull it tight. This will gather the ribbon and give it a proper bow shape. Do this a few times through the center to make it tight, and knot off the thread.
Snap open a quilting clip so that the tail part sticks out and away, and put a thin layer of hot glue on the teardrop shaped part, and press it to the back of the bow. Be careful- the hot glue lives up to its name, and metal is an awesome conductor of heat. I put this on sideways as seen in the picture so that it doesn't show from under the bow.
While that cools, go back to the flowers. On the bottom of these silk flowers, there is usually a tiny green "tag", like a little plastic straw. Cut this off as close to the flower as possible, and seal the flower together with hot glue. Let it cool. Now put more hot glue on the bottom as a thin layer, before pressing it onto the front of the bow in the very center, over the stitching. Hold it there for about ten seconds; the glue will set and cool.
Test it out! Snap it onto the shoe where you are most likely to wear it (I put mine near the front) and then slip the shoe on. Take the ribbon laces and thread them through the ankle loops and tie them on.
Voila- a not too shabby shoe clip!
I'd really like to do a few more of these though; mostly in hair clips, or if I can find another pair of these shoes, a white or blue pair would be cool. What do you think?
