Wednesday, April 18, 2012

We Live For Impracticality.

 This latest DIY was a last minute addition to the runway of Scrubbed (literally glued the things together an hour before the show started).  So the newest project to captivate your attention is...drumroll...a foot accessory! Yeah, really got creative with the name.  I was inspired by these "beach wedding shoes", it's basically a sandal, without the sandal.  So these are OBVIOUSLY really practical, as in not at all.



You will need:
  • 8 small pieces of rope (measuring a little longer than your ankle) Mine: 11 inches
  • 4 longer pieces (to wrap around your toe and ankle, like the top of a sandal)                               Mine: 20 inches, size 8.5 shoe
  • Rags (I used scrubs....obviously)
  • Glue gun
  • A thick material for the back closures(I used a placemat)
  • Velcro
  • String (color of your choice)

P.S. Ignore the change of colors of the strings in the instructions, I made the accessory in two different colors but combined the steps, oops.  And don't forget you have two feet.  So you will need.....two.


These pieces will be the backing of the rope sandals, mine measured 3 1/2 inches by 2 inches



Step 1) Turn over each side and stich, just to make it look niiiice.


Step 2) Sew on velcro, one on the right side and another on the wrong, so only right sides are showing when velcro-ed together (as seen in the photo below).


Step 3)  Wrap the rope in the ripped strips from your fabric, the rough edges give it a more ragged and tribal appearance (which is what you wanted, am I right??)


Step 4) Further embellish each individual rope, I used more strips of contrasting fabric and string for the "African feel".


Here are the ropes after wrapping, the four short are for going around the ankle (like an anklet), and the longer rope is for the connecting piece between the anklet and to wrap around your toe (you will understand soon enough, just relax!).


Step 5)  Glue ropes on the WRONG sides of the velcro rectangle pieces, think of it as a closure to the anklet, you don't want the wrong sides to be showing on the outside of the anklet. (hope this is making some sort of sense...)  Glue the four ropes equidistant from the next with the two on the top and bottom almost touching the edge of the rectangle piece.  
Measure how big you need the anklet to be as you glue down each strip, I made mine fairly tight so each rope wouldn't fall down and look dumb.


Still glueing....


This is what it should look like after glueing the ropes down...


Step 6)  Now it's time for the long piece, I know you've been super worried about it.  Put on the anklet and fasten with the velcro that you so cleverly assembled.  Now wrap it around your toe (I guess you could do it around any one you wanted, you have 10 to choose from...) and fold over the remaining length over the bottom rope of the anklet.  Hot glue the rope together to fit and stay in place, then take it off.


Step 7)  Time for those awesome rag wrapping skills to come into play once more, cover up those ugly ends with more fabric strips. 


Step 8)  Also wrap near the toe loop too strengthen the rope, hot glue just sometimes isn't enough! (Though it almost always is, of course).


And here is your finish foot accessory, anklet, A.K.A. sandal without the actual sandal.  This version was made to match the couture look.  When putting them on, slip the loop over your toe first then attach the velcro in the back of your heel around your ankle.  




Here they are on Jenna! Probably better than on my cracked nail polish toes.


Here are the other ones for the Ready to Wear look


More pictures from Scrubbed, all that work only to be showed for a couple of seconds! So lets just remember it some more ;)





And my decorated stethoscope even got some action on the real job, my cousin Kelsey was lucky that I let her use it...she probably received a lot of weird looks. 




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