Tea Rose Mary Janes {A Shoe Refashion of Sorts}
03 August 2011 | by Jen in Frocks & Such
Don’t you love it when you are so inspired to do something that you have to do it RIGHT NOW?
Several weeks ago I saw these 1930s floral-pattern and metallic shoes on Pinterest (from the Thought Patterns blog):
Beautiful! I immediately bookmarked this image, on Pinterest, and in my mind. I knew there was a way to make/refashion similar shoes. I had a starting base:
Very old, maybe 1920s or ’30s Mary Janes. You can see me wearing them here. I had been thinking about getting them professionally repainted/dyed a darker color for fall but had been putting it off for no particular reason. (OMG, I just realized, looking at this photo, the perforations form a heart in the center!)
So I’ve been trying to figure out how I was going to get the roses on here. Paint them? (HA!) Waterslide decals? (Probably not suited to leather.) Decoupage with Victorian clip art? (Might be messy.) I have a whole bunch of Victorian stickers on my stationery drawer that I haven’t used. While decorating a package today (for a certain little fairy friend), I realized that the stickers were printed on thin, clear plastic. Eep! Just the ticket.
I went to work straight away. No, I don’t know how durable this is and what will happen when I actually wear them out and about. But I didn’t care, I was having too much fun.
And they are not perfect, there is a wrinkle here and there but I think they look pretty good. I’m going to wait a while to see if the stickers start to peel off; if so, I might put on a coat of satin clear acrylic paint over them.
To finish these off I painted the trim a pretty, faded gold (“Champagne Gold” metallic acrylic paint from DecorArt). These are now the prettiest shoes I own! OK, so where to wear them?
What are your thoughts, dears? | ♥ 18 Comments
These are gorgeous. The look like they were made like that. What a wonderful idea! Wish I was that creative
How lovely shoes!! I am Inlove forever lol! Lucky girl you are!
I love your blog
I absolutely love how they turned out! Now you have some dreamy shoes!
These are gorgeous! You are so talented and creative!
Good job, and great idea!! They are so pretty, and I love the cut outs on top.
This is an amazing idea Jen!! You have so many good ideas – jeez!
P.S. thank you for putting my headband on your facebook!
omg!! those are amazing. they look like they came that way.
Hi everyone, thank you kindly!!
they look FANTASTIC! when i saw these posted to your flickr page, i immediately had to see how you did it!!! i never would have guessed they were just stickers. i hope they stay put for you!
Awesome job! I did think you had painted them at first.
So pretty. I even like yours more then the ones that served as your inspiration.
Wow, absolutely beautiful. I would test the stickers on another leather and the acrylic top coat to see if it cracks. I think it sounds like a good idea. I see these at a lovely tea room with one of your sweet little dresses.
Wow I would have never thought of this how clever. Probably some kind of coating on them would help to keep the stickers in place. Makes me want to do this if I can find stickers like that I have a pair of shoes that would work.
What a wonderful idea! They came out so cute!
Oh my!! you are a wonder!! These are SO pretty!
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Oh, what a darling pair of shoes!! And such a cute idea…. I am loving anything floral at the moment, so I adore what you have done to your Mary Janes. Gorgeous!
xox,
bonita of Depict This!
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Just curious, how did these fare? Are they still around and did the stickers stay on? I’m thinking of doing something similar on one of the many pairs of black leather Mary Janes that I own.
They seemed to be okay. The stickers are placed where there isn’t much movement/bending. I think that is important to them staying on.