ELECTRIC BLUE SUEDE SHOES

Not only do I love high heels, but I love dying fabric. And when you combine the two, you get these electric blue heels lined with fabulous turquoise animal print fabric. I know what you're thinking.... nobody will see the inside. But, the cute knotted strips across the toe are enough to dress up a darling dress and especially if you dye it at the same time!

So, before you actually line the heels, you need to dye the fabric. First, I washed 1/3 yard of white 100% cotton fabric to remove the sizing and to be sure the dye was able to saturate all the way through the fibers.

Next, I cut an animal print stencil from craft foam and laid it on the fabric. (Just google the words animal print stencil and you can print it from your computer.)

Then I sprayed over the stencil with Tulip One-Step Dye in Turquoise. I kept moving the stencil until the entire piece of fabric was covered with dye. I did it sloppily so that I had dye everywhere. Oh, and don't forget to wear the gloves in the kit and to cover your table with a plastic bag. I covered the wet fabric with the trash bag for 4 hours to let the dye do it's thing. Then I was able to toss it into the washer with a little bit of laundry soap for a full cycle, dry it, and then iron it. I absolutely LOVE the color.

I took just regular printer paper and stuck it into the shoe to get a pattern of the sole and the left side and right side. I used my fingernail to indent the paper as a guide for cutting. I labeled each pattern and cut out doubles of each for the 2 shoes.

Next step was to spray the paper patterns with Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Spray Glue and stick them to the back of the fabric, leaving at least 1/4" space around the edges.

I used Aleene's Fabric Fusion to glue the edges inward and cut slits in the fabric to ease around the corners.

I inserted the pieces into the shoes with Aleene's Fabric Fusion so they would be good and snug.

The last step was to tie 2 strips into a loose knot and glue across the toes. I cut the ends to exactly match the bottoms of the shoes perfectly. I'm in love and ready to kick up my heels!

I hope you love them as much as I do, and if YOU embellish your heels, I would love for you to send me a pic: http://www.blogger.com/pwilkinson@ilovetocreate.com and maybe next week I'll post a pic of your heels!