Feathers & All – Replicating Belle’s Shoes
Feathers & All – Replicating Belle’s Shoes

Feathers & All – Replicating Belle’s Shoes

Belle-28 copy 2

The Shoes

Well, here goes another explanation of a crazy decision!

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ABOVE: (these are my shoes) 

BELOW: (these are the shoes from the movie)

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After seeing those two photos of Belle’s shoes, I was determined to find replicas, or more like, I needed to find shoes that had the same shapes so then I could paint them and add the feathers.

After many (I repeat, MANY) hours of research, I could not find any shoes that would work….well, I actually did, they just cost $130+ and I was unwilling to spend that much on shoes that I was planning to paint and glue add feathers to, plus, only wear a few times!

In those hours of research, I came upon these shoes (below) and decided to turn them into Belle’s shoes!  This decision was based on some encouraging posts I found online. These posts showed successful conversion of shoes.

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Most of the material I used are pictured here….though, I did switched the white feathers to pre-painted gold feathers.

~ The Base Shoe ~

These shoes are found here.IMG_3201IMG_3202

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As you can see, they have the right heel style and toe point.

~ The Process ~

I won’t be writing much for the rest of this post, I’ll let the photos speak for themselves!

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Drafting the heel pattern.

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The draft of the whole shoe.
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This is the second draft.

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Don’t mind the color of the leather, it’ll be covered up!  For this project, I purchased a bag of scrap leather.
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I started out the project using this glue…I then switched to the E600 glue; it’s way better!
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The first leather piece is attached!

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These are the straps.

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Here’s where the fabric glueing starts!
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The goal is to get the fabric as smooth as possible!
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Pins are my best friends!

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See what I mean? Pins worked wonders for this project!

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Don’t worry about the glue soaking through the fabric, it’s going to be painted!

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Some twill tape covers up the raw edges!
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Yay, painting time! Expect to apply several coats of it!

Painting is done! Onto the feathers!IMG_3521IMG_3530IMG_3538IMG_3540IMG_3545IMG_3559

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Last step: painting the edges of the soles, and reattaching them! I used liquid cement for reattaching!

Shoes 2Belle-23Belle-27Belle-26

Belle-28 copy 2
Thanks for looking and learning with me!

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4 Comments

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