I Love Shoes!

I have been searching for the perfect pair of blue ballet flats to replace a favorite pair of mine that has bit the dust.  I don't seem to have a problem accumulating a lot of red pairs of shoes...but it seems impossible to find cute blue ones.  As I was cleaning out my closet this weekend, I found an old pair of navy suede flats that aren't too disheveled but could use a good spruce. 

Please forgive my photos, I seem to have misplaced my camera and I had to take these photos with my phone.

Flower and ribbon flats

Materials:

Ballet flats
2 strips of fabric approximately 2" x 20"
Coordinating ribbon, approximately 1" wide
Fabric Glue
Scissors

Take 1 strip of your fabric and fold it in half lengthwise.  Iron the fabric so there's a sharp crease.  Do the same to the other fabric strip.  With your scissors make small slits, about 2/3rds of the way down along the folded end of the fabric, about 1/4" wide.

Don't worry about getting your cuts even, it looks cuter if it's messy!

Next, roll your strip with the folded side on top, dabbing a little bit of glue every few turns.

Keep rolling and gluing until you have a tight little bundle. I clipped the glued end with clothespin to let it set

While both of your flowers are drying, take your ribbon and cut it into 2 6" strips.  Fold the ribbon ends under, overlapping, so the top of your ribbon is about 3 inches long.  You can measure this against the top of your shoe and cut it to whatever looks best.  Glue the ribbon so it stays together, I also clipped these with clothespins. 

Once your flower bundles are relatively dry, you can spread the loops out a bit to look more like petals. 

Now, it's supposed to take the fabric glue about 24-hours to dry.  I, of course, am impatient so I decided to put the shoes together and let it dry all together so I didn't have to wait!

Squeeze an inch long glob of glue on the toe of your shoe, wherever you want your decoration to go.  Press the ribbon centered on the shoe.  Squeeze a small dollop of glue in the center of the ribbon and press the flower (the glued, non-loopy side) onto the ribbon.  Place 2 clothespins clipping the ribbon to the shoe on either side of the flower.

Let your shoes dry for at least 24-hours before removing the clothespins. 

Voila!  A cute upcycled pair of flats!