1790s Decorated Shoes--A Very Tiny Tutorial!

For the Jane Austen Evening this year, I wanted special shoes. I have my wonderful Robert Land square toed dancing slippers which I often use for Regency, but I wanted something a little more 1790s in date, decorated with ribbons and spangles. So, I started a search for pointed toe faux leather flats that would fit my tiny feet, and came across these on Amazon for $13. Definitely worth a try! I was so pleased when they arrived--they fit perfectly and for a pointed toe shoe, had a rather centered point so weren't as obviously right and left as other shoes I've owned. I then ordered flat silver sequins on Etsy and green silk ribbon from Farmhouse Fabrics.


And, onto the shoes! Here are all my supplies. E6000 glue, wax paper, tweezers, ribbon (I have no idea why I bought so much), shoes, pencil, ruler, and sequins.


To begin, I drew a grid of dots on my shoes. I had initially planned on just a little design on the front, but then wanted spangled polka dots. The dots are about half an inch apart.


I then glued a sequin to each dot. To do this, I made a little puddle of the glue, picked up the sequin with the tweezers, and placed it on the shoe. With thanks to Julia for suggesting the E6000 and Jenny-Rose for the tweezers suggestion!


Then, I box pleated the 1/2 inch ribbon so it would fit around the front of the shoe. I sewed those pleats into place, and then pinched each in the middle and sewed it to make it a little more dimensional.


I sewed that down, which was surprisingly easy to do through the pleather, then sewed the ties down a little further back. And that was it! A very satisfying little project :)


And the finished shoes! They were incredibly comfortable as well, thankfully!