Rose Tyler: The Idiot's Lantern Shoes Tutorial

Time for more Doctor Who!

Today we'll be tackling the FANTASTIC shoes Rose gets to wear:


Not having $400 to shell out for actual Agent Provocateur Jessica pumps (I wish I were making that number up) I decided to make these shoes myself.

I started with a pair of adorable peep toe pumps from Goodwill that cost $6.


Now, obviously, these shoes look nothing like Rose's. However, they are the right shape and have heels that are the same height. They are by Madden Girl and I believe they are called "Molly." If you want to get the same shoes, I found two pairs on eBay just now in different prints for under $20 each.


I started by removing the Mary Jane strap. I just took a pair of sewing scissors and cut the stitches, being careful not to cut through the fabric of the shoe. I had to cut the ends of the strap where they were stuck underneath the sole of the shoe, but for the most part the strap came away very cleanly. I must stress caution if you have to do the same thing to your shoes, though, because I did cut myself doing this.


There's one shoe, strap free!


I then applied the first coat of acrylic paint to my shoes. I have had this pale pink paint forever. I probably will still have some when I die. They'll paint my gravestone with it.


This paint goes on pretty thickly, but these shoes have black spots on them so I had to paint more than one coat.


Coat number two.


Third coat.


Fourth and final coat.


Then I painted the inside of the toe... I believe this took two coats.


For the black details, I used Craft Smart paint from Michaels, which I do not advise using for this project. It kept scraping off of the shiny edges.


 I used my black paint on the edge of the shoe and around the toe.


I also painted along the edge of the sole, around the top of the heel, and two lines down the back of the heel.


To make the bows, I made a template and then sketched it onto craft foam.


1,367 coats of paint later (I may be exaggerating slightly) I had pink bows.


I painted the edges in a thin black line.


I also painted the back and sides of the bows black.


I had to touch up/ redo this process several times before I was satisfied.


All done!


Using as much hot glue as possible, I glued the bows to the shoes.


They glued on really well and didn't start to slide off or anything.


Unfortunately, my bow did start to crack a little so I filled it in with more pink paint.


Once everything had dried, I took my glaze and painted over everything on the shoes to make them patent-leather-shiny.


This made the shoes slightly more of an electric pink than I had been expecting, but they still work well with my fabric. I think they're absolutely adorable.


As always, I hope this helps you!








EDIT TO ADD MARCH 10, 2016:


Long story short: my bows kept cracking. The paint just didn't stick well to the foam.


I repainted the bows with several layers of paint and then I sealed over the tops again, much more thickly. They're still a little cracked, but they're better. My guess is that this is something I will have to touch up often to make sure they still look great. :)

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