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Sunday, February 15, 2015

1790s Decorated Shoes--A Very Tiny Tutorial!

1790s shoes 7

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.

1790s shoes 1

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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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 :)

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