#shoe tutorial

You will need:

A pair of leather (or pleather) ballet flats

Primer

Clear spray paint

Acrylic paint (and brushes - not pictured)

2" wide ribbon

Craft or newspaper (not pictured)

Tape

Scissors

Hot glue gun and glue sticks

 Pencil

 Lighter

A pair of snips/"nippers"

Velcro (optional)

The first step is to take off any decorations on your shoes that might get in the way of painting. If your ballet flats are completely plain, you can skip this step!

Carefully pull back any embellishments and snip at the threads with your nippers. Remove everything. If your flats had the loop on the heel, just cut them off as close as you can to the sole of the shoe. Note: some are glued with adhesive, and they may peel up the finish on the shoe. It's okay! It will be covered when you paint.

The next step is to trace the soles of your shoes onto your [news]paper. The point of this is just to cover more of the sole of your shoe so you can save some tape.

Carefully tape the paper to the sole of your shoe and get as close as you can to where the rubber meets the shoe. This is to avoid overspray from when we're priming. You wouldn't want to get prime or paint onto the rubber as it's very hard to remove!

Stuff your shoes full of paper, unless you don't mind a little primer on the inside.

Next you will want to prime your shoes! Go outside for this. Be sure to read the instructions and precautions on your spray can. I put them in a box so I wouldn't spray all over the sidewalk. You will want to do this step in very thin layers, and leave time to dry. If you don't, you'll have drips and your shoes wont look smooth when you're finished.

You will then paint your shoes! I'm sorry I didn't take any process photos of this, but it's pretty straightforward. Again, paint in thin layers and let dry inbetween. This may take a while! I only used two coats of color before I had my entire shoe covered.

The last step before decorating is to give it a coat or two of clear coat. Get out your spray paint and use long, thin, even strokes as like with the primer.

Grab the loop that you saved and get your ribbon and hot glue out. The first pictures shows about how long of a piece you need to cut to be able to create a loop. Cut two of these.

Fold your ribbon lengthwise into thirds and gently crease. Lay your ribbon out flat again and run a thin strip of hot glue down one of your creases. Fold over 1/3 of your ribbon. Put another thin strip along the edge and glue down the other side. Repeat for the other piece you cut. Be sure to use your lighter to seal the edges. All you have to do is quickly run the flame along the cut ends of your ribbon. This melts it and seals it so your ribbon doesn't fray.

Now you need to fold your strip down to create a loop. Put a small bead of glue at the tip and fold it down about an inch. It's okay to estimate! 

Now we will make bows! Cut three lengths of ribbon - two that are about 8" long, and one that is about 5" long. Seal the edges of the two longer pieces with the lighter.

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Take your shorter piece. Fold and glue it into thirds like we did for the loops. Cut it in half and seal all the edges with the lighter. This will be the center tie of the bow.

Now we will make bows! It's super easy. Take one of the longer strips you cut and run a small line of hot glue down one side. Glue it to the other end, creating a little hoop of ribbon. The "crease" is where the middle of your bow would be, so flatten your circle with your finger, taking special care to leave the crease in the center. Now either fold it like an accordion or squish/scrunch your bow together. You can put tiny dots of glue in the creases to help it keep shape.

Take one of the center strips. Put a small dot of glue on the back side of your bow, and glue down one end of the strip. Wrap it around the front and to the back again. Cut off any excess, but leave enough to overlap where you started. Burn this edge and glue it down. Repeat for your other bow.

Now decorate! I used star beads and flatback pearls. They just need to be glued down with your hot glue gun. Glue your loops to the back of your shoes over where they were before.

This is an easy option if you don't want to go through all the trouble of making velcro straps. (They're really not difficult, though!) It's still very cute! Basically you just take two lengths of ribbon that are long enough to go through the strap and tie in a bow around your ankle. Bring the ends to a point by cutting the ends at a slant, and remember to seal the edges with a lighter!

If you'd like to go ahead and make the velcro straps, loosely measure around your ankle and add about an inch. Cut one length of ribbon that length.

Now you will want to take that length of ribbon and cut it in half lengthwise. The goal is to make two strips that are thin enough to go through our heel loops without being folded. Take your lighter and carefully seal the entire long edge you just cut. This picture shows the size difference. My ankle straps aren't perfectly straight but it's okay, because it isn't noticeable when they're being worn.

Now you will want to glue your velcro on your ankle straps. These pieces are about 1" long. Pay special attention to make sure they are put on correctly. One piece of velcro will be on one side of your ribbon, and the other will be on the flipped side. This ensures it lays flat around your ankle.

One that's all done, you can put your strap through your heel loop!

I went one extra step and made bows similar to the ones we made for the toe of the shoe, just slightly smaller, and attached it to my ankle straps. You can do other stuff with it, too, if you like! Like more flatbacks or whatever you decorated your shoes with.

Now you're finished! Aren't you proud?