Wait, I Sew? (Flower Shoe Clips)

I have a lot of female friends. This isn't 'vaguely know them on my Facebook page' sense, but in a 'I see these people quite regularly to hang out' sense. With the holidays/birthdays approaching and me short on money, I decided to venture into a new arts and crafts project, shoe clips.

I searched around for something I like, but nothing to my satisfaction. I mean, does everyone have to make nice shoe clips in the same shape (circles) and material (polyester ribbon)? So here I go again attempting to sate my dead grandmother who could make shawls with dental floss.

For experiments I purchased some Japanese inspired fabric from Kimonomomo and a nifty book on fabric flowers. The fabric was enough to have me experiment, and the book had *gasp* realistic patterns. A bit of cutting and painting and sewing later I came up with my prototype


Here's Mark 1. Instead of leaving the edges raw I tried stiffening the fabric so it doesn't come undone. This left the fabric a bit too stiff. I could only shape it after smashing it in my hand and giving it a good twist. Even then it would lay flat after some time. However I did like how the two pearl beads in the middle turned out. All right, lessons learned. There's plenty of material for Mark 2.

Oh this one turned out nice. Rather than starch the fabric to stiffness I painted the edges with some fabric paint (and some gold glitter for sparkle). I might have been a tad too enthusiastic with the application of the paint. This is much closer to what I had in mind. Not flat pancake petals, but rather layers that can move and fold on their own accord without detracting from its beauty.

I would start on Mark 3 (and hopefully the final test clips) today, but it's my neice's birthday party. Time for some cake and Wii Sports antics!