Blue Shoes

The Blue Shoes.  We found these shoes for one of our actresses.  They are to go with a sort of royal blue dress, and we figured we could take them somewhere to be dyed to match.  Well, after much research, it seems that the only shoe dying folks will do these days is either black or –– or black.

So we did a bunch of brainstorming, and decided to decorate the shoes somehow with some of the same blue and maybe some pearls, because the hat that she'll be wearing with the dress is blue with some pearl trim, and silver lamé.  The character is a diva sort, the era is the 1940s.  In other words, she needs to be very well "put together".  

From our Trim Box - this ribbon is an OK match for the dress, but too sheer.

So I folded it in half, and put two folded layers together, and stitched.

Yes, that looks good.  The trim has to be removable, so we can use the shoes with other outfits in the future.  So I decided on making a flat bow that can attach with a small clip.  And I thought I could put some pearls somehow over the knot of the bow.

I woke up one morning thinking I could use a button as a base for the pearls.  I found these nice, flat pearly white buttons in my button basket.  Here they are with an assortment of pearls, beads, and rhinestones.  

Then, I thought, maybe some beaded dangles would be nice.  Here's the first attempt - some pearly seed beads with a pearl bead at the end.  Well, you know, if it's invisible when standing right next to the shoes, it's going to be mighty invisible from the audience.  

So I found some larger, rice grain shaped beads in the darker blue.  Still adding a pearl bead at the end.

Here are all the pieces, waiting for the glue gun to heat up.  I folded the ribbon into bows, and did just a bit of gathering in the center.  I made three dangles for each shoe, and decided on a rhinestone in the center of each button.

Here are the finished bows, followed by the bows resting on the shoes.  

Then came the question of how to clip the bows to the shoes.  I went to the Sally hair place.  I found silver pincurl clips (I don't know what they're really called), which were 2" long, way to long.  I found 3/4" alligator clips, nicer size, but too lumpy for any kind of comfort.  So I came back home.  I ended up glueing a piece of felt to the back of the bows and paper-clipping them on.  

Results from the first dress rehearsal today:  They look great.  They don't stay on reliably and hurt.  So.....  Mina is taking them home tonight and experimenting with both aspects.

We have tech rehearsals all week this week.  Updates to follow, I am sure.