Let's Party, aka Shoe Repair

Here's a lovely, glitter and rhinestone shoe, just perfect for ringing in the New Year at some ritzy, glitzy party.  

The only problem with this plan is that one of the straps has got some loose rhinestones.  

The construction is kind of like a ladder, with the two sides comprised of several strands of thread, and the rhinestones sort of backed and/or stitched between them.  I really couldn't tell exactly how to reproduce the original construction.  Here's the back side:

That's one of the perks of working with my friend Julia of Basya Berkman Vintage - she is always bringing me new and exciting challenges! 

  

Luckily, the side threads were all still intact.  Otherwise, it would have been even more of a challenge. And most of the stones that were dangling were still attached to one another.  I was able to stitch between and around the ones to the right of the heel strap, in the photo above, and re-set them into the side threads.

But the stones that were coming off presented a bigger problem.  And I must admit that while investigating the shoe, I, a-hem, managed to get two stones to drop right off.

After a long bit of musing, I came up with a plan.  I decided to cut a tiny strip of fabric and glue it to the back of the strap, adding on the loose stones.

Julia thought this part was so fun, that I really should tell you all about it.  I tested all the kinds of glue I have, to find out which would be most flexible and keep the strap comfortable to wear.  I put a sample of each glue on a piece of my chosen fabric, and labeled them so I'd know what's what.  Science!

The clear winner was Sobo.

I used Fray Check as lightly as I could on my tiny fabric strip.  And then threaded it through the heel strap, under the stones.

So here's the process:  take a little glue on a toothpick, spread it on a couple of jewels, hold until the glue starts to grab.

 Have a sip of tea.

 Repeat with a little more glue.  Hold patiently.  Have a look out the window.

Repeat with more glue and more holding.  Chat with the family.

 And so on.  And on.  And finally, here's the finished result, front and back.

The official on-feet portrait of the shoes can be found here.

Time to party!