Footwear style in-fringe-ment

Are you the kind of person who can never throw anything out just in case it comes in handy some day? I am, although I suspect you had probably come to that conclusion all by yourself if you’ve read even a handful of my posts. Case study number 3004958 (I’m also known to exaggerate, as you have possibly also deduced) – these shoes. Above, you see them as they are today. Below, the shoes in their original state when I bought them from the Salvos for about $9 over a year ago.
Black, velcro straps and platform heels dates these as most likely being a product of the mid 90s. As they were slightly too loose and also too boring to wear as-is, they lay untouched in my “things to fiddle with” pile, which is basically stuff that is too good to throw out and about which I intend to have an epiphany as regards how I should lengthen/shorten/embellish/simplify/completely remodel it. But then, for another project, I bought some leather and suede scraps, and a light went on in my brain. I cut some black suede into long strips and wrapped them around the front strap and the heel strap, securing it with a little bit of superglue.
This served not only to give me something to do in front of the TV, but to cover up the original boring leather which was a bit stiff and likely to have given me blisters. And there was another bonus – adding this wrapping meant my feet didn’t slip around inside the shoes! Yes, I’m incredibly intelligent, I know, I know. But I was not content to leave my genius at that level. Behold, ankle fringing! And slightly inventive camera angles!
This fringing idea was really easy and did not even involve buying any extra materials. A few years ago I bought a black leather skirt (from an op shop, of course) which was too long, so I cut off some of the hem. Voila, mini skirt, modelled with a top I made and a headscarf (naturally, also from an op shop).
Now, take a guess at where the ankle fringing came from… not hard to see that I made it from the hem of the leather skirt I’m wearing, is it?
You’re all so smart that you probably don’t need me to explain how I made the fringing, but just in case…
I took a rectangle of leather for each ankle, wrapped it around my ankle to check the size and allow for a bit of overlap, then cut strips into it vertically (that’s the fringing!). Then sewed on some press studs so that I can just snap the fringing around my ankle (you can see the inside and the outside of the fringing in the pic above). This means that if I want to, I can wear the shoes without the fringing, or I can wear the fringing with other shoes.
Yes, pure genius, I know. Hark! Is that Mensa I hear knocking at my door?
*If you want more of my shoe remodelling ideas, try here and here.
Category : cheap thrills, fiddling, fringing, IQ off the Richter scale, leather fringing