DIY Ombre/Gradient Shoes

Spring is right around the corner and it's time to start thinking about flowers blooming, birds chirping, and the sun shining!... as soon as you finish shoveling your driveways, that is. Here in L.A., I'm ready to start thinking pastels, florals, and of course anything with an ombre effect. So when I saw this post on Frankie, I knew I could do it myself and save a lot of money in the process (go to Etsy and type in "ombre shoes" and I guarantee you'll find some for $80 and up!)

All you need is:

1. A clear pair of shoes
2. Fabric dye
3. A washcloth you're not afraid to dye in the process
4. Baking powder
5. An old toothbrush
6. Vaseline
7. A container to hold the water/dye mixture
8. Rubber gloves (optional)




To get started, first coat Vaseline around the bottom of your shoes. It doesn't need to be thick, just enough to act as a barrier between the shoe and the dye.

Next, combine your dye, water, and salt. I didn't have enough table salt so I tried using kosher salt... which resulted in a bunch of salt at the bottom of the container. I recommend following the instructions on your dye packet and you should be set. Don't worry if the color isn't what you're going for, it'll turn out a different color once it's on the shoes.

After you've created your dye, wet your shoes entirely so the dye can be evenly applied.

Dip the tips of the shoes into the dye and slowly take them out. Keep dipping more and more of the shoes until you've covered what you like.

With your washcloth or rag, start to rub the color down the sides of the shoes to create the ombre effect.

If you're still seeing lines, dip your washcloth into the dye and use that to smooth out the color.

Let the shoes dry for 5 minutes before running them under water. Once the water is running clear, the post recommends you let them dry overnight before doing anything else. However, I'm impatient. So I took a blow dryer to them and 10 minutes later, they were good enough.

Place the baking powder on the bottom of the shoes where the Vaseline was and using your old toothbrush, scrub away the Vaseline. Use a paper towel to wipe away the excess.

Lace up your shoes and you're all set!

I think I might re-dye them because after they dried, the ombre effect wasn't as vibrant as I had hoped but I'm still happy with the results!

TOTAL COSTS: About $20

$17.99 for shoes at Payless (but they were buy one, get one half off)

$2.50 for dye from Michael's

Vaseline, toothbrush, rag, and baking powder all on hand

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: About 1 hour, 30 minutes

However, they do recommend you wait overnight before taking off the Vaseline!

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 3 out of 5

It's not easy to get the ombre effect without getting blotches or streaks but if you rub them out long enough, you should get the look you're going for! Happy (almost) Spring!

How to Make Felt Booties

Babies to the left of me, babies to the right... they're everywhere! Sometimes I feel like the only woman who doesn't have a bun in the oven but that's ok, I'm happy to make things for other people's kids! For example, this post from Purlbee shows how to make felt booties, perfect for the wee one who'll grow out of them sooner than you think!

All you need is:

1. Some felt
2. Some embroidery thread
3. A needle
4. Some elastic
5. A printer and scissors to cut out the template
6. Some pins (about 20 pins -- 10 per shoe)

Cut out the pattern, trace it onto the felt (I didn't have an erasable marker so I just used a pen), and pin a long piece to a short piece. Pretty self explanatory, you're making a shoe!

By the time you're done pinning both shoes, you'll see they're approximately 4" long, the size of a 3-month old baby's feet. Hopefully.

And then comes the sewing... my big mistake for this project? Reading the instructions as needing "4-6 inches" of thread instead of "46 inches". I actually didn't need that much, I was able to sew with 36 inches. Now I don't know about you, but her instructions for a button hole stitch made no sense to me whatsoever so I turned to this video for help. See, you don't have to already know how to sew to do this project!

If you can't see the video, here's all you have to do: always sew from the back to the front and when the thread is almost taut, stick the needle through the thread and then pull it taut, like the photo below.

The hardest part for me was sewing the elastic, but it really shouldn't take more than 5 minutes per shoe. It's just making sure the elastic is sewn in on both sides that proves to be a bit awkward but not impossible.

And voila! Slippers for the little one!

TOTAL COSTS: About $18 (to make about 24 shoes)
$12 for 2 packs of different colored felt from Fiddlesticks in San Francisco
$.60 for embroidery thread from a knitter at Zoe Zeynep in Los Angeles
$2.59 for elastic from Michael's
$2.99 for pins from Vons
Needle, scissors, and printer/paper already on hand

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: First time 1 hr. 20 minutes; Second time 54 minutes
First time: 35 minutes to cut out felt and pin shoes, 40 minutes to sew both shoes, 5 minutes to sew elastic
Second time: 16 minutes to cut out felt and pin shoes, 33 minutes to sew both shoes, 5 minutes to sew elastic
See? The more you do it, the faster you'll get!

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 3 out of 5
For someone who doesn't sew, I found this to be moderately difficult but not impossible! It does get easier the more shoes you make!

Comic Book Shoes

Now this is something every female comic lover can get behind - comic book shoes! I found this fun post on Flashsolver.com and as soon as I saw they were going for $70 on Etsy, I knew I could easily make them for less.

I stopped by my local Goodwill and picked up a pair of Steve Madden's to transform. The next question was - what should the comics be? Well, I decided to go with female supervillians on one shoe and female superheroes on the other.

(Not that it matters but the four supervillians I went with were: Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Mystique. The four superheroes I chose were: Wonder Woman, Storm, Black Widow, and Silk Spectre)

So with my Mod Podge in one hand and a shoe in the other, I got to work. Here are steps that I didn't take that I should have:

Step 1 - Cover your work area. This is going to get very messy so be sure to put down at least a paper towel or newspaper on your work space.

Step 2 - Choose what you'd like to put on the shoes and try to plan where you want them before you glue them on. This will save you time and frustration down the road.

Step 3 - Make sure your shoes don't have a rounded toe. Go for a pointy or flat toe. Rounded toes make it very difficult for the paper to lie flat.

Step 4 - When you're ready to apply, put Mod Podge under AND over the cutout. This will help ensure it has been applied securely.

And that's it! If you're worried about all the white glue on the shoes (see right), don't worry, it'll dry clear.

TOTAL COSTS: $10
$10 for shoes from Goodwill
Mod Podge and Brush already on hand

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 1 hour, 40 minutes for gluing only 
It took me 1 hour for 1 shoe and 40 minutes for the other shoe, as I had gotten the hang of it by then. Note that additional times will vary depending on how many images you use, how difficult it is to find them, how long it takes to cut them out, etc.

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 3 out of 5
Strategically placing the images so the color of the shoe wasn't visible was not easy. The original post cut out very small images AND used colored shoes, which you might want to do for your first try!