All up, this only cost me $10.50 ($5 for the flats, $3.50 for the whole bottle of fabric paint, $2 for 12m roll of ribbon) and took around 3 hours to complete.
Equipment:
- pair of plain flats (if you're planning on wearing socks/tights with them, make sure the flats aren't too snug on your feet)
- fabric paint
- paint brush
- ribbon
- clear sealant (optional)
Method:
1. Make sure your flats are clean by wiping with a wet wipe / damp towel
2. Using your fabric paint and paint brush, spread thin layers of the paint evenly on the whole surface of the shoe. Let each layer dry before adding another on top, and stop when you're happy with the opacity (took me about 5 layers to get the gold I wanted). This is also when you'd spray / paint on your sealant.
*Fabric paint adheres to most synthetic surfaces pretty well, so I did not bother with using primer
3. Cut your ribbon to length. Do this by taking some ribbon and tying it around your foot how you would want it to look with the shoe. This can be awkward but try your best, since ribbon that's too short will be ribbon that's wasted!
(3.5) The ribbon I had on hand was white, and I figured I'd just paint it to match my shoes. Blunder, because the base of the shoe was black, and the golds don't match at all hah!
4. Depending on what you prefer, you can glue the ribbons on the inside of your flats, or you can just wind them through the little tabs that flats often have on the inside.
- by gluing the ribbons down, you ensure the bow doesn't move after you tie it, and your shoes are tied to your feet
- by not gluing it down, you're free to change the colour and length of your ribbons any time you like
Here's what mine looked like, although I'll most likely buy matching ribbon the next time I'm at the craft store:
Hope this helped, sorry I didn't take pictures of my earlier progress, feel free to shoot me a question on tumblr if you have any!
