Boot Basics Tutorial
Recently, I wrapped up work on my boots for a cosplay (Lillet from Grim Grimoire) and I got a few questions about how I made them, after posting photos of the first of the pair. So, while making the second, I took pictures and notes along the way.
Materials: To make the boots, I cut my pattern out in both home decor vinyl and a durable cotton. I’m not going to go into how I made my pattern, as there are plenty of great tutorials on how to wrap/tape your calf and foot and make them. In addition, I used: Wonder Clips - These are great on vinyl, since they don’t make holes.
Fine Pins - Just for areas I knew would already be pierced
Grommets - Just a standard setting, also with washers
Scissors - Regular and ZigZag for trimming the allowance
Black Acrylic Paint - to add a little bit of depth
9″ Zipper - To make the boots easy to get on.
Zipper and Teflon Foot - You want to use a teflon foot when working with Vinyl
Base Boot - The original clog-style boot I used as my base
(Not shown) hammer, thread, leather needle, suede cord.
First things first. I needed to attach my lining to my vinyl facing. To do this, I used the wonder clips to pin the fabric together. For the lower piece, I left the center seam open to turn it (since it’d be covered up in the final boot anyways). On the inside/outside pieces, I left the zipper seam open for turning.
I attached the Teflon foot to my machine, and used a standard 2.5mm straight stitch. The trick here is to go slowly, making sure your stitch lines are precise. I also removed the clips as I came upon them.
Another little trick I use, which helps a TON when it comes to turning the pieces, is to add a little extra reinforcement to corners. When I get to the point I need to rotate my stitch, I back stitch a single stitch, then come forward one stitch. I turn the machine, stitch one stitch, back a stitch, and then continue. This makes a small area of reinforcement.
After I’ve stitched everything together, it’s time to cut off my seam allowances. This is where my zigzag scissors come in really handy! I try to cut as close to the stitch line as I can, without cutting the thread. This adds the notches to the fabric that makes curves and such easy to turn, without having to individually cut tons of little triangles.
Remember those little reinforced corners? This is why! Using a needle (with thread normally, it just fell out while trying to take a photo) I can pull through the corners and get sharp, precise, little turned corners, right down to a single stitch.
Ta da! We have a bunch of lined vinyl pieces! But they don’t really look very nice, just a little too bubbly. So, it’s time for some top stitching to get them to lie nicely.
Still using the teflon foot, I stitched about 5/8ths into the vinyl. As you work the pieces around the machine, it’s important to make sure you’re guiding the seam allowance that’s inside the fabric in and under. Otherwise, you end up with a little bit of the lining peeking out. Go slow!
After all the top stitching was done, it was time for me to set my grommets in. I had nine on each side, each spaced about an inch apart. I marked them all carefully before I started cutting, as there isn’t any going back!
After each hole was marked, I used a small pair of snips to cut tiny diamond/circles out of both the vinyl and the lining. You can also use a hole punch if you have it, but I didn’t have one on hand.
These grommets I used had three main parts. The bottom half, which I wanted to place on the vinyl side going -toward- the lining. Then came the clear washer followed by the top half. I also have the die setting that came with the kit.
Once everything is aligned, it’s hammer time! You want to keep the die set as straight as you can manage, and hit the die center. Too much angle can lead to bent or uneven grommets.
How do you know a grommet is set? The top grommet which is not has a sharp, rough edge of the bottom part poking through while the bottom has been smoothed. Usually the easiest way to tell is to run your finger over it.
Now, on to the painting! painting around the stitching line gives the vinyl some depth and imitates a tooled feel that’s found in real leather (it’s also a visual look often used in video games/anime to indicate leather). The trick to this is to dry brush, using very little paint on your brush and no water. You paint from the stitch line toward the center, alternating straight strokes and circular ones.
I also went in and painted around each of the grommets as well, to give the leather a more worn look.
Next up was to attach the inside and the outside boot pieces with a zipper. This is located at the back of the boot, from the ankle up to mid calf and allows me to easily put on the boot. The zipper is pined in place and then stitched with a zipper foot.
After the zipper is put in, I also went back and top stitched it as well. Then I followed it up with more acrylic paint shading to match the other stitch lines.
Now it was time to assemble the rest of the boot cover! Using the seam lines already in place, I pinned the main body of the boot cover to the U-shaped detailing. I also unzipped the back to give myself more wiggle room in pining.
The key here was to use the already existing stitch lines, in a technique called “stitch in the ditch”. This let me hide my attachment seam within the already existing one, and let the covers look cleaner.
Next, I placed the now-assembled boot covers over the base boot and laced them up. Besides allowing me to check my work, this also stitched up the last seam to allow the boot cover to encompass the original boot.
Here’s what the boot looked like zipped and laced up! At this point, If I wanted to reuse the base boots, I could have added elastic around the bottom of the cover. But I wanted something a little more durable, so I used contact cement on both the cover and the base boot to secure the cover in place. Unlike other glues, with contact cement you put it on both surfaces and then wait for it to dry. Then, all you have to do is push the pieces together and boom! Adhered!
So, here are the final boots. The contact cement has cured on the bottom, and I ended up putting a little along the fold line at the top of the boots to secure the fold a little more permanently. The clips help hold the curve until the glue has fully cured. And this is how I made my boots for my Lillet Cosplay. I hope you enjoyed the tutorial :)
















