DIY J.Crew inspired bow shoes

My final J.Crew inspired DIY. When I first saw these I didn't ever want to see them again let alone use them as inspiration but a shoe lust grew and now I love them. When searching through some old shoes I hadn't  worn in years I found the perfect pair for this DIY.

So to continue my neon obsession, I used a neon pink to paint the off white band around the shoes. I painted on four light coats to evenly cover the area.

For the bow I used a baby blue nail varnish, I only needed two coats of this and I loved the result. For small details I will be using nail varnish in future.

And voila the finished shoe, thus concluding my JCrew inspired DIY series. I hope you like the shoes and if there is a series of DIY's you would like to see comment below or for the shy among you, you can continue to email me at fashionwrapped@gmail.com.

DIY J.Crew Image by J.Crew glitter shoes

Image by J.Crew

My second J.Crew inspired DIY are the glitter and satin pumps above. I loved the contrast between the satin and glitter heel but being unable to recover a shoe and having to work with what I have I chose to cover the shoe in glitter.

So my lovely coral shoes had seen much better days, the heel on one of them had been badly marked and the leather had come off it. I wanted the bows for other DIYs so off they came and since have been safely stashed away.

I unhooked the straps, removed them and put masking tape along the inside. The insole was also covered with masking tape.

I sprayed the shoes using the same gold paint and the same steps as my sequin shoe DIY.

I used the same spray adhesive as the sequin shoes again. Working area by area I sprayed the adhesive and sprinkled the glitter over the shoes.

Tip - to save yourself a massive clean up cover the room in newspaper, I put down two sheets and I will be finding little glitter pieces for months!

Continuing on, two further glitter coats were glued on and left to dry fully. To help prevent excess glitter coming off I sprayed on a top coat and left it to dry.

Once dry I removed the masking tape and put the straps back on.

DIY J.Crew inspired sequin shoes

Image by J.Crew

Sequins, sequins and more sequins. I am covered in glue, covered in sequins and it was worth it! After I spotted the above lovelies I knew I had to recreate them saving myself the €400 price tag. The shoes were a hand me down and the sequins and glue cost less then a tenner!

So onto the DIY.

They started life a patent baby pink but after two many dings and scratches were left in the back of a closet to waist away. After I got my hands on them I knew I wanted to cover them in something shiny.

I used masking tape to cover and hold down the small buckles and cover the inside of the straps. I scrunched newspaper and filled the shoes.

Using a gold spray paint I sprayed the entire shoes. I only used two coats, letting them dry fully between each one.

So then came the sequins. I used a spray adhesive and part by part sprayed and sprinkled sequins over the glue.

The glue took way too long to dry and as I was working my way around the shoes the sequins kept falling off. When the glue had eventually dried i went back over the shoes filling in the gaps. trying to work with sequins with glue covered hands is a serious test in patience. I barely passed.. At least I ended up with shoes I cannot wait to wear.

Shoe Inspiration

I am loving J.Crew's new collection of shoes. There is at least 5 pairs I would gladly starve myself just to buy. But since I do have to eat to survive I have started a little make over on some of shoes. I love the sequin and glitter pumps.

Watch out for the DIYs soon

Images from Honestly WTF

DIY Peplum Skirt

After seeing A Pair & A Spares DIY I had to try it myself. I found the perfect skirt in a thrift shop for €2.

Before

After

The skirt had a great flare at the hem cut on the bias. The front was one single piece, and the back was cut into two. I ended up only using the two back pieces. The skirt was very big so it needed to be taken in before I could stitch on the peplum.

Firstly I cut off the flared end of the skirt.

Before I took in the skirt I tried it on to check the fit. The skirt already had two darts on the front and two on the back that could be taken in a little more then the rest off the side seams. The back of the skirt had a waistband that was slightly elasticated while the front had just a facing.

The facing was removed from the front fully and the back waistband was only partially removed. I didn't want to mess around with the button hole. The elastic was also removed.

For the front darts I took them in an extra 1cm on the flat. On the back I took them in an extra 1.5cm on the the flat.

One of the back darts

I cut along the center of the darts and pressed them all open.

Each side seam was taken in 6cm. I curved this on the hip for a good fit. I took just 2cm off the each side seam at hem - just so I can walk and sit. I trimmed the excess fabric off and pressed the seam open.

I stitched the front facing back onto the front and the waistband back onto the back leaving the side seam open at the top.

I stitched up the rest of the side seam closing the seam between the back waistband and the front facing.

For the peplum I folded the two pieces in half marking the center point. I pinned the right side of the peplum fabric on the inside of the skirt at the top. I used the center markings on the side seam so the peplum would be evenly placed. I stitched along the top.

Peplum stitched to inside of skirt

 I turned the peplum to the outside and pressed along the fold.

Inside the skirt showing the front facing

Another image of the peplum stitched to the facing

 The hem was uneven when I removed the flared hem. I measured the lowest point from the top of the skirt down. I gave myself a 1cm hem allowance - this is quite a mean allowance but the skirt was already short enough without taking away more for the hem. I marked the hem all around from the top down.
I serged along the edge of the hem, pressed it up and stitched it up.

Back button detail

Back

Front

Let me know what you think.

DIY - Mirror Mosaic Heels

On a recent thrift shop visit I found the below shoes for a whole €2, I could not say no even if the patent leather was a bit beat up and scratched. I had a lot of ideas for these shoes which mostly involved covering the shoes completely.

My slightly beat up €2 shoes

 Last week when I went midweek craft supply shopping I found tiny mirror mosaics in lots of different colours. Immediately I knew what i was going to do with them.

Mirror mosaics!

Paid up and homeward bound I could not wait to start on the shoes. I started on the heels first. I took the mosaics off and put two straight lines down the back of the heels. The heels were filled in on each side in an arc. Due to the nature of the glass mosaics (they were cut so that nearly all the squares were different sizes) I could not cut them down to size so I resorted to trying to find the right sizes to fit together.

My slightly askew straight lines - well nobody is perfect right?

 So the other problem with the heels is that at the edges the squares were pointing out the ways and due to all the different sizes i could quite reach the edge in all the lines. with the heels done I started on the toe cap.

Yeah one line done only 5,964 to go! Slight over exaggeration maybe . . just slightly

I used masking tape so I could get a perfect line. Then one by one line by line the toe caps were covered.

Getting there

 The mosaics have a sticky back to them so they were easy to stick on. Now if they last while being worn I will be surprised. When I wear them I will need to carry spares just in case. Maybe I should mod podge them?

And voila my art deco heels!

One and 3/4 sheets were used.

I originally wanted to use the black mosaics on the rest of the shoes but I loved them so much with just the gold and figured it might be too much with the black also.

Check my post coming in the next few days on how I reduced the scratch marks on the shoes. Now they are only noticeable on close inspection.

DIY - Picture Frame Earing Organiser

Ok I know what your thinking another picture frame, but I think you will appreciate my need for this one. I made one of these as a present two years ago, promising myself I would make one for my earrings also, better late than never!

This time I used a shop bought frame, burlap gauze, glue and lace trim. I had tea stained the lace months ago and had been waiting to use it.

What I used

I removed the glass and the backing from the frames. I usually spend time placing the lace and making sure it looks right, but I was very eager to get this DIY finished so I just started gluing on the lace like a crazy person. Luckily I stopped after only two frames, any more would have been too much I feel.

The burlap twine gauze was cut to size for each frame and stapled it in around the frame.

Then up on the wall it went. Its strange how excited I was putting the earrings up on it.