D.I.Y Shiny red ballet style shoes

When I was younger I used to have tap dancing lessons, and by no means was it my forte. I really disliked it, but stuck it out for a year or two until I finally convinced my mum I was not built to be a dancer!  I have a bit of a 'thing' for red shoes, and maybe the tap dancing could have been where it started, I had patent red shoes with the underneath made of metal, which made such a beautiful sound.

I saw these red pointe shoes on the internet, and fell in love ! I wanted to try to create my own more practical version (also a lot cheaper) that I could wear for everyday use. The above images are from Google and show the ballet pointe shoes both in red, and the iconic pale pink ones.

Here is my take on them -

What you need:

1 Pair of white ballet shoes (Mine were from Primark £4)

2 Meters red ribbon

1 Can high gloss red spray paint

Scissors, cotton

Tissue paper or newspaper

  

 You need to stuff your shows with tissue paper or newspaper to stop the spray from getting inside your shoe. Then take them outside, somewhere that you don't mind being sprayed.

Now Spray your shoes. It is better to have several thin coats, than one thick one, so be patient and spray, dry spray etc until your shoes is evenly covered.

Now leave your shoes to dry overnight, as they can sometimes be
 sticky for a few hours after.

 You now need to have 1 meter of ribbon for each shoe. Cut each meter in half (50cm) so altogether you have four pieces of equally sized ribbon (4x25cm).

Roughly mark in the middle of the shoe where you want the ribbon to be. Sew either by hand or on the sewing machine each piece of ribbon to the shoes (four times altogether).

 Then they are finished! I watched a video of how to tie them on Youtube - Ive posted the video so you can see for yourself how it's done.
My version's are obviously not meant for proper dancing, so only use them as day shoes!

My Creations

 I made these using the same technique as I demonstrated in the other post earlier, but these were made using a circular pin opposed to the vertical type. I use old and new beads to make the pieces, and use vintage charms from broken jewelry.

 These were made using the straight pin, but I bent the end to hold the hearts in place. (These are my mums favourite).

 I love the colours of these ones.

 These charms were from a flea market selling old broken jewelry in box's ( It was my dream come true finding them)!

 The are quite retro and 60's looking I think.

Lastly these were inspired my Smurfette after I saw Katy Perry's dress for the smurfs premiere.

I hope you like them.

DIY Earring's

 Today I made a simple D.I.Y of how to make your own earring's. I love earrings but sometimes I'm fussy with the ones in the shops, and they can also be quite expensive, so this DIY is useful for making your own original style earring's.

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Supplies - These pliers I used are awful, ideally you should invest in some thinner jewelry specific ones, but these do work, it's just a bit more awkward.

1) Pliers

2) Gold or silver earring Pins/Needles.

3) Gold or silver Earring heads.

4) A selection of colourful beads.

(You can purchase jewelry making equipment very cheaply from Amazon or your local Craft store e.g HobbyCraft)

Step 1.) Use your jewelry needle/pin and thread your desired beads onto it. This is the best part for me, as I love choosing colour combination's. Remember you need to have two of every bead for the earrings to be symmetrical (unless you want them to be different, which could be pretty cool too).

Step 2.) Make a replica of the first earring, and make sure you leave roughly 6-8mm space at the top of the earring for the next step.

 

Step 3.) Then you need to use your pliers to bend the top of the earrings into a loop shape. This will be used to attach the earring head. You need to make sure it is tightly closed or the earring could become unattached later. 

 Step 4.) Now you need to open the hoop at the bottom of the earring head with the pliers, which will enable you to attatch the earring to it.

 Step 5.) Lastly, you need to slip the hoop from the earring pin onto the earring head, and use the pliers to close the hoop tight. And there you have it, a simple pair of earrings in 5 easy steps.

 This is probably very wrong according to the 'How to make jewlery properly book', but it works for me, and hopefully may inspire you to make some for yourself !

I will post some other earring's I have already made in a little bit...

Pretty Dresses

Over the holidays I had a much needed clear out of my wardrobe!

I send some to the charity shop, sold a few pieces on eBay and to my friend Georgie, and finally organised the rest into some form of order.

I hung up all my dresses (and there were quite a few!) along with my knitted jumpers in the closet, found a special draw just for my skirts, and then piled my less used items such as trousers, jeans t-shirts etc in another few draws.

I like how the colours and patterns remind me of different days out and memories from being worn.

One of my favourite dresses is my navy blue strawberry dress from Juicy Couture (Far left). I wore that for my R.O.A (a bit like a prom) at the end of high school.

I love colours, pattern, velvet, lace and just about anything that catches my eye and is exciting.

And it feels so good to finally be able to see what I have to choose from.

New additions

 After Christmas some new additions have joined my earring collection. I love colour, feathers, beads, food themes, and anything a bit quirky and different.

 My mum bought these lovely cherry earrings from Hannah makes things (they have some really cool jewellery) I love the colour, and the kitsch feel to them.

They came wrapped in this tissue paper, with a little packet of Parma violets - so cute.

This is one of my favourite pieces from their site, along with the flamingo earrings I posted last month.

When your dress is just that bit too short...

Today I decided to have a clear out of my closet! I listed a few things on EBay before finding this lovely velvet dress I bought a few months ago. Unfortunately when I purchased it, I didn't realise how short it was. Not that I’m against short skirts, I’m actually very pro short skirts. But this dress was that little bit too unacceptable for my daily trip to college! So I have come up with a way to lengthen it just that little bit more.

  

Firstly I plunged into my ribbon supply!

1. I found a similar colour ribbon and creamy lace that matched my dress.

2. I then sewed together the lace and the ribbon, with the lace on the underside.

3. Then I turned the dress inside out, and sewed the ribbon side to the dress.

4. Turn the dress back to the right way, and there you have it! A slightly more sophisticated look for a dress well worth keeping.

Re-desigining a bag

Yesterday I made this bag from an old vintage purse and chain my mum found lying around at the back of our shop. The beading reminds me of those cheap little purses you have when you're little, and I loved that!

There is a little pink stain down the side, but I think it adds something more to look at rather than being a problem. 

This was the bag before.

 I really didn't like the chain and it was broken anyway. The fringing was ok but most of it was missing and I thought it would look neater without it.

Finally the zip was stuck so I decided for full reconstruction!

       1.Firstly I cut off the old zip.

 2.Then I unpicked the stitching on all four sides of the bag and removed the fringing. Then I sewed on the new zip.

3.Next I sewed the three sides back up together.

4.And lastly, using fishing wire, created a new strap made from a pattern of pearls, white beads, and plastic beads, before sewing it onto the finished bag.

 

Overall I think it now looks much better, and I can actually use it as a bag, rather than just keeping it in a pile of things because it looks pretty.

Kate Winslet & Style

 I was reading Nylon magazine last night and they had done this feature about her style, so I had to share it! I LOVE the backpack, jumper and hair dye, not too keen on the cargo pants though, but overall her style is just so cool.

 This is one of my all time favourite films!  Kate Winslet is my favourite actress, but I am particularly fond of her character in Eternal Sunshine. I've always had a soft spot for her after Titanic (another favourite film) since I was younger. Everyone really needs to watch this film, especially if your the arty weird creative type, (which I hope I am?!)

New Shoes!

 The most beautiful new shoes! I bought these yesterday from the Trafford Centre, in ‘Schuh’ to be precise.

I'm usually a red shoe kinda girl, but after trying on both the red and green countless times and aggravating the staff, I finally decided on the green ones! But the red ones are equally gorgeous.

They remind me of Dorothy's shoes from The Wizard of Oz. And they were only £65!

I wore them last night to a Halloween party and had lots of compliments, so well done shoes!