Frozen Shoes

Taking a quick break from the Lagertha project, I've finished the shoes for my Elsa ensemble.
These are the same shoes I wore for the Disneyland event a few months ago...for a little while at least. They were brand new and while pretty comfy, I hadn't had time to break them in. My feet were ok with them for about 3 hours but after a few blisters started to show up, I switched to some flats I'd painted a similar color.
Now that these are properly broken in, I decided to give them a facelift since the original paint job was rushed (over a navy color) and none of the "Frozen" modifications I wanted were done.

What follows is truly my own version of Elsa's shoes. I'm not attempting to be dead accurate with these, but I wanted them to at least reflect the general look and colors used on hers.

Using some softer scraps from the tooling leather I used for my Lagertha armor, I created extensions on the vamp of the shoe in a spiky icicle design. Before adding these, I sanded down both shoes thoroughly so that both the glue for the additions, and the new coat of paint would have a surface that they could adhere to.
(Please excuse all the thread, blue clippings and hole punch confetti on my carpet from the leather Lagertha tunic)

 Tools of the trade; sandpaper, glue, hairpins, super sharp scissors and Dutch licorice cats...which have zero to do with this project except that they are tasty. 

To glue these pieces on, I used Aleen's Foamtastic. This is the same brand that makes the Jewel It glue I use to decorate my burlesque costumes in all those Swarovski crystals. I needed something strong that would not only dry clear, but flexible. Normally I would have used some kind of shoe repair glue, but I didn't have any on hand. Alternately, Foamtastic works for this sort of thing because it's made for porous materials. Leather is porous, and this glue is super thick and tacky. It holds while it dries, and doesn't soak away into materials that tend to make more fluid glue vanish before it can stick.

As you can see from the top photo, I still used a few hairpins to clamp the pieces in place while it set. Once that was done, I broke out the paints.

The first coat.

I mixed two colors of Lumiere paints; a plain turquoise and a frosty white metallic to get the shade you see above. After that was dry, I added more of the metallic frost white to the tips of the spikes. Building and blending the layers of the frost for more intensity at the pointy tips, this definitely gave the shoes an icy look.

The finished product! Or do I add more sparkle?

I also shaded some of the frosty white onto the small heels and along the top edge at the back.
Eventually I'd like to find a diamond shaped hole punch, and do a cut-out design on the interior of the spiky pieces for a snowflake look.
I know some people have added glitter to theirs, but I want to keep the snagging effect to a minimum. Granted, spiky things similar to what I added can catch on hemlines, but that's why I used a soft leather that is unlikely to be a problem. Glitter, when glued to a surface, becomes like sandpaper. I really don't want the inside of my hem & the satin lining to catch, scuff or stick to my shoes. Swarovski crystals are an option though ;-)

Pompadour Ribbon - Stripe Painting Test

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I'd like to try my hand at getting a striped taffeta ribbon by using fabric paint and masking tape. Well I finally had the chance to try it today, and while it didn't turn out flawless, I'm pretty pleased with the results.

I found some Frog Tape at my local Home Depot, and masked off the first test stripe. I used a swatch of ribbon from a roll of vintage rayon taffeta. Not the color combo I intend for the Pompadour gown, but a good test run for the paint/tape/taffeta combo:



After I put a good coat of paint down, I let it dry. I used the Lumiere fabric paint in 550 True Gold. This stuff dries fast, so I didn't have to wait long:



I did run into one little snag with this; I may have used just a bit too much paint, trying to make sure the edges were well defined. Also as a side note, if you try this, make sure when pulling the tape off, pull flat along the surface. Not up/away and toward you:



There was a definite raised edge of paint, and a few burrs. Nothing horrible really, but I decided to give it another go using a thinner coat of paint:


Round two:

Much better (the wider stripe toward the center of the ribbon). Still a bit of a paint edge, but not as raised as on the first attempt and a much nicer depth of color with only one coat of paint.


So, now imagine this done on a medium pink picot edge taffeta ribbon, with a silvery champagne painted double stripe on each edge.

The Pompadour Stomacher: An Adventure In Fabric Painting?

So, upon closer inspection of a clearer image of the Boucher painting (not this one), i have noticed that the ribbon used is not pinked on the length and ends. In fact it's only pinked on the ribbon ends and has a picot edge.
The ribbon is at the very least 3 inches wide, made of a silk taffeta, and a satin stripe woven through it; 3 of them near both edges.
It looks as though the stripe is a slightly pale shade, almost a champagne or silver (non-metallic) tone.

I can track down tons of this 3" wide pink picot taffeta ribbon if I really dig, but I will likely not have very good luck finding something with the above woven stripe, nor in silk.
Rayon is what you normally find nowadays, in collections of new/old store stock from the late 1920s up to the 1950s, on Etsy or Ebay. It would do more than suffice and have a similar texture and body. Even the super crisp ones right off the roll, soften a little after being handled.
If I have no luck finding the right shade of pink, rayon is dye-able.

Now, for those pesky stripes, I have an idea; fabric paint.
One of those translucent and softly pearlescent kinds by the likes of Lumiere.
Perhaps I could use some frog tape (the version for delicate projects) to mask off my stripes like a stencil, apply my paint, and once it's dry, carefully remove it.
This would (hopefully) reveal nicely spaced and evenly coated stripes along each edge that mimic a shimmering woven satin line.
As for historical accuracy; I have seen many hand painted ribbons from the 18th century and well into the 19th. So there would still be a level of accuracy in that department.

I would most definitely do a test run on a small length of the ribbon first, in hopes that when I peel away the tape, the paint on my ribbon doesn't go with it!
It's one thing to mask off a wall, but another to paint-and-pull on a somewhat slippery fabric surface.
We shall see. I may even try it this weekend on a scrap of some rayon taffeta ribbon in my stash, and I'll post the results. Be it failure or success.