As far back as I can remember, there were 2 fantasy things that I really wanted to have: Cinderlla's glass slipper and Dorothy's Ruby Slippers. I finally made one of those wishes come true. These shoes were oringinally intended to be sold at a silent auction to fundraise for my choir tour to England. However, since they did not sell, I was able to take them home and enjoy them for a little longer. I eventually donated those slippers to a charity auction at a church that I worked at. The most gratifying feeling was seeing little girls walk by the shoes and gasping - they knew what they were! 

The shoe iteself is a size 5N Capezio tan Character Shoe. I chose the character shoe as a base because the shape of the toe and the heel are very similar to a 1920's schoolgirl pump. The one problem of using a character shoe is that the sides of the shoe are not a smooth slope, they actually dip down a bit. This was less than ideal, so I lined the interior of the shoes with white pleather and built a new shape for the sides.

Then came the sequins! It took me a few days (on and off) to completely cover each shoe in metallic red loose sequins. The original shoes actually used flat translucent burgundy sequins, but for budget's sake, I used what the craft store had in stock. Each sequin was applied using tweezers and glue formulated for leather projects. It was important to me to maintain the angled rows of the sequins.

These shoes would have just been red sequin shoes if they didn't have the signature bows on the front of the shoe. Using a blueprint of one of the original pairs, each of my bows had 3 emerald cut rhinestones, 42 small round crystals and red bugle beads.

This project happened completely by chance. I was walking through the jewelery findings section of Michael's, and I told myself that if I could find all the right rhinestones, I'd make the shoes. It was an impetuous decision, and it didn't help that I had a deadline!

A few days ago I woke up and decided I wanted to make another pair of Ruby Slippers, this time for me to wear myself. I went out and bought myself a pair of Capezio 650 character shoes in tan leather, in my own size. From my first experience, I knew that cupped sequins were the devil so I bought a 100m roll of red strung sequins. They lie flat, and since they are sewn together there are a couple of advantages. Since each sequin is knotted in, they won't all fall off if one comes loose, and they are nice and uniform.

Here are a couple of photos of my new slippers -


 

 

Update: April 16, 2005