A girl in my life drawing class wore a pair of shoes that caught my eye a few months back – sneakers with silver sequin fabric over the fronts. They weren’t what you’d expect – overwhelmingly bling-y or like child’s shoes. I think she said they were her ‘happy shoes’.

I thought it wouldn’t be too hard to make something similar, so next time I was near a cheap shoe shop I had a look for shoes with potential. I wound up buying men’s shoes, because the women’s were too plasticy.

Then when I was next in Lindcraft I had a look to see if there was any sequin fabric. All they had was fake sequin fabric, but I decided it would do just as well. In one of those nice little coincidences, they also had fancy shoelaces, including piano keyboard ones. About that point I got RSI, but the project seemed like it would be easy on the hands so it went into my Projects to Finish list.

I wasn’t sure what to do about the white toes. They were bound to get scuffed pretty quickly. In the end it was a tutorial for sprucing up old books that gave me the idea to try glitter. Some flexible artists acrylic varnish that also works as a glue took care of the glitter, and the hot glue gun dealt with the fabric. In a short time I had these:

Which I wore to the final life drawing class plus Christmas celebration. Afterwards I noticed that the glitter is starting to peel off. When it starts to look shabby I might redo them, scuffing up the surface of the toes so the acrylic varnish sticks better. But by then I might be a bit over the glitter, and will just peel it off and leave the toes white.

One of the things I like about fashion at the moment is it has a fun side. A touch of glitter and sequins here, feathers and fur there, bold colours and silly hats. These shoes are pretty tame in comparison, but they’re my happy shoes. For now.