FO: Altered Camera Shoes

Here is a break from my normally scheduled programming, lol. I found this pair of what I call wanna-be-Toms at Marshalls a few months ago in their clearance section. I'd never tried out this type of shoe before (being too cheap to buy Toms brand), but I was always curious on how I would like them. This Esprit pair for $9.00 would be a great chance to try out this style, but even when I made the purchase I planned on embellishing them in some way. I mean what good are plain fabric shoes if you can't make them your own, right? At the time, I just put this notion away in my "good ideas" file of my brain and moved on for a while. Not long after though I found out that Spoonflower was offering a free test swatch of your choice in their new Eco Canvas fabric on that day only. Of course I immediately headed over and looked through to pick out my swatch. I was quickly overwhelmed as they have so many amazing prints to choose from (you could also make your own as part of the promo - so cool). In the end, I went with a category that is near and dear to me: Cameras.

This fabric is called Vintage Cameras B&W and was designed by Andrea Lauren. Back in my film photography days I was obsessed with vintage and toy cameras, both of which are featured in this print. - I actually own and used all but 1 of the cameras shown :) The scale of the print was perfect for this project too, but I knew this thanks to Spoonflower's gauge rulers next to the print photos (so helpful!)

After much deliberation, I decided to use the Diana F+ and the Imperial Mark XII cameras on my shoes. These were two of my favorite cameras back in the day. I had two vintage Stellar cameras (the Diana but with a different name) as well as two Mark XIIs (a black one and a Girl Scout mint green one), and my husband eventually bought me the Lomo repro of the Diana F+ while we were dating (complete with the polaroid back - so cool). I used to love putting 35mm film through the Mark XII - you end up with one long picture due to the overlap of the shots and the picture goes up into the sprocket holes. Anyway, I could geek out on cameras forever - you can see my old work if you go here. After choosing my cameras, I cut them out evenly and put them on the shoes until I liked their shape and placement.

Then came a whole lot of hand sewing. No joke I must have spent 2 hours just stitching these things on like patches. I just used a running stitch around the edges in black thread. It went fine until I had to cross the toe - do you know how hard it is to strategically place a needle and push through thick layers of fabric with your needle held between your 2nd and middle finger in a tight area? Pretty stinking hard I can tell you, lol. The whole process did kind of take me back to my high school backpack embellishing days - I had a red Jansport with Weezer and NFG patches as well as an "Arm The Homeless" patch I got at Warped Tour one summer. Classic. Anyway, if you can stitch a patch, you can do this project. I just had to be very patient and constantly reposition the needle across the toe to keep the stitches even from the outside.

A problem I had the whole time I was sewing the cameras on was how much this fabric wanted to fray. I mean, I know it's canvas and all, but holy cow - that was a lot of fraying. I wanted it to happen a little just as an edge detail, but I didn't want them to unravel into nothing. So, after stitching these "patches" on, I went around all the edges with a liberal squeeze of Fray Check. Now I have the distressed look without any actual distress to myself - man I love Fray Check :)

After doing all this work, I wanted to make sure my shoes would last a while for me to enjoy. I had pre-washed the camera fabric, but I was afraid that the red canvas would bleed into the patches if these got wet (which is inevitable - I live in Florida). Enter a can of Scotch Gard. I had never used any Scotch Gard products before, but consider me a convert :) It was quick and easy to apply (I even did 2.5 coats), and now I have the peace of mind that these shoes won't look awful the first time I wear them out.

And now I have a supa-fly pair of camera shoes that have an added bit of personal meaning :) My husband and I met through my crazy film photography, so even though I haven't been as obsessed in with it in recent years, these shoes are a nice little bit of nostalgia for us. Justin loved these :) 

I know it's a silly little project that any high school student has probably done by now, but I was really happy with how these came out. This was quick to do, and only cost me about $10 when you factor in the amount of Scotch Gard I used. Not bad for a pair of custom shoes!

*Just for the record, I was not endorsed by Spoonflower or Scotch Gard in any way for this project. I just really enjoyed my experience with their products :)

Weekly Pinspirations

I've been all about trying out pins lately. I'm not sure what spawned the urge, but it's been ongoing so hopefully i can keep up the momentum :)

I came across this pin a while ago and didn't think much of it, but I've noticed that my house shoes have a little aroma going on so I decided to give this a try.

I'm not a tea drinker, so I picked this box up at Aldi just for this purpose (it cost like $1.17 or something for the whole box). I went with the lemon green tea in hopes that it would make them smell a bit more like lemon and less like tea (again, I'm not a tea person).

I put the tea bags in the toes of my shoes when I went to bed and checked them in the morning. I will say that when I first sniffed them, the foot smell was gone, so I thought it had worked. That was about as far as it got. I wore these around that morning while I was getting ready and by the time I left an hour later, they smelled like feet again. So this works well ... if you don't intend to wear your shoes ever again. I was not impressed. I definitely count this pin as busted.

This second "pinspiration" I read once on one of those annoyingly long pins with the images and little tips. Of course since it was long and annoying, I didn't pin it and therefore I can't find it now. So just trust me, I read this on pinterest. This one said that if your hair has a lot of static, rub a ball of aluminum foil on your head to counteract it. Well, the other day I was sitting at work and my hair was so static-filled it was driving me nuts! It was sticking to my face and neck and looking ridiculous, so I decided to give this a try.

I grabbed some aluminum foil from the lunch area and wadded it up into a ball. Then I started rubbing my head. I rubbed the outside of my hair and even put the ball inside a bit, all with the best of hopes.

I think some of these "tip" pins are made by people who just want you to look like an idiot. As you can see below, this actually MADE THE STATIC WORSE! So not only did I look like a total weirdo (luckily no one saw me), but I had more static in my hair because of it. Needless to say, I was not happy.

So, don't try either of these pins! lol This is the first time in my Weekly Pinspirations that the pins didn't work out at all, but if you never try, you never know, right? So take my trials as your lesson and don't try these yourself. It will save you some unneeded embarrassment, lol.