Wednesday 16 May 2012

Drills give me thrills...

I finally got to (properly) use my BEAUTIFUL craft drill, that I got for Christmas, this weekend. Before I got it, I had wanted a drill for ages. Crafty power tools really get me excited, especially ones that you can hurt yourself with. I have the Dremel 4000, which is a corded, handheld multi-use drill, with a mini-me drill attachment. I love that I can buy so many different accessories for it and it just makes me want my own studio/craft space even more. 

I had used it a few times previous to the weekend; I attempted to use it to cut a bar off the foot of my bed (so that Ben could stop having to poke his feet through it to fit in, and could just dangle them off the edge instead), and I also started to drill some plates for a cake stand - but I burned out the drill bit. Whoops. 

I never thought I would use it to drill holes into shoes though. But that's exactly what I did. 

I had a pair of pink suede shoes with a mock wooden heel that I had bought before uni at Primark. I never wore them anymore, as the heel was a bit too low for a shoe of that colour (it makes sense, trust me). What to do with them?

Before
Well, I rummaged in the craft cupboard, searching for inspiration and found some paints - bear with me, it's good, I promise. 

I painted the pink suede with black fabric paint. For the heels, I thought it might need something tougher, so I sandpapered them and painted with black Hammerite, which has a lovely consistency and made them super shiny. Then, I decided to give them a bit of a designer touch and paint the bottoms with red acrylic. I'm pretty sure that the red won't last too long, but it's fun while it does. 

After painting
Then, after ordering some supplies from my Mecca (eBay!), I started drilling... and studding! I had two kinds of studs, some taller ones with screw-backs and some shorter ones which were rivets. I also added a drop of superglue to all the studs, to ensure they wouldn't just fall off - some of the threads of the screws were shortened by the amount of material on the shoes.

After studding them, Ben's Dad pointed out that I would probably shred my feet whilst wearing them, so I glued some black felt to the insides, to cover the back of the studs, and they are lovely and comfy now!

Ta-daaaa!
I am super happy with how they came out; they are just so FIERCE. They will look fantastic with a floral dip hem dress and leather jacket. Can't wait to give them their first outing! 

I did have a few injuries from this project - the studs stabbed me a few times, and I hot glued my fingers to the felt, which stung a little - but no drill holes anywhere but the shoes so, all-in-all, it was a success! Hoorah!

Here is the original inspiration:



Let me know what you think!

xx

2 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh! I love these!! What is this Hammerite you speak of? Is it a special type of fabric paint? I would love to make my own pair!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I used black fabric paint for the main part of the shoes, and Hammerite for the heels and platform part. Hammerite is like a metal paint, so it made them super shiny and I thought it would be really durable! If you make your own, be sure to show me!

    ReplyDelete