#shoepants

It's like making bootcovers except they're spliced into the pants pattern.

Alternately, you make fake shoepants: Leggings made of spandex, where the shoes are covered in the same exact spandex, and the folds of fabric at the ankle cover up the "join".

okay first i was like FUCK THAT IS A URL IT IS A SPAMBOT and then I realized wait, no, I know this person. so I clicked.

I was like. "Is that. It can't be."

and then i realized IT IS.

ladies and gentlemen behold

Neither can I, because there are sooooo many variables.

Unfortunately when I was talking earlier about a shoepants tutorial, I was assuming that I'd have time while making my next costume to photograph each step of how I make shoepants. I uh... I didn't. However! I'm willing to discuss three different shoepants techniques I've used!

  The first one is for high-heel shoepants. I used this for Haman Karn, who despite being a Gundam character, definitely has shoepants in the outfit I made. It's probably the absolute easiest shoepants method. I made a pair of spandex leggings that were not the length to my ankles, but the length to my feet pointed plus a bit for shoes. I sewed the bottom of each leg together like a pair of tights, and cut a hole carefully where the sole of my shoe sticks out. Before putting on the pants, I thread the shoes into them, heel sticking out the hole. I then put on the pants and go. Since I'm pretty hard-wearing on those particular shoepants, I've had to make a few pairs; I have a pattern for high-heel-tights shoepants that I use and I can knock a pair out in 45 minutes from laying out fabric to cutting to assembling to wearing. This is the easiest variety.

  For Johnny Joestar (both versions), however, I used a different variant of shoepants, fake shoepants. I honestly like this method the best, when I can get away with it. It must be done with really stretchy 4-way-stretch fabric; medium weight spandex is the best, and you probably couldn't use this with vinyl unless it was 4-way stretch. I made the pants (or jumpsuit for the second one) out of the same spandex I saved scraps of to cover shoes later. The pants have to be long; you wear them pulled down over your heel, so the unhemmed pants edge actually sits around your foot encircling your arch. The shoes were later covered with a single kind of parentheses shape of spandex that joins up the back; I glued it on by using E6000 around the shoe seams, and shoving pins into the shoe or the shoe-to-sole seam or just along the back as I stretch the fabric over, holding it in place (and looking something like Hellraiser) while it dries. The key is to end up with the center hole of the shoe, where you put it on, being smaller than your ankle, a single layer without a hemmed edge, but also being able to stretch your foot enough to put it on. Trim excess fabric off the sole of the shoe, put on pants, and put the shoes on, moving the opening around so it just kind of sits there around your ankles. Because the pants and the shoes are THE EXACT SAME MATERIAL, the seam is almost entirely invisible, and you can actually take off your shoes without having to also take off your pants! It isn't a good method for all instances of shoepants, but it's the most comfortable by far.