making tartan shoes

[sydnie7]

Try it with some plaid fabric of similar weight to your eventual tartan. Mess around until you are satisfied with results, then use that as the pattern for your final.

I assume you are looking to cover existing flats with a layer of fabric, not make the shoe from (excuse me) the ground up? Spray adhesive from 3M, available at craft stores, should do the trick for short-term use.

Or you could look at the "tartan" trainers that, I think it was Kinetikat? made using permanent markers! If your tartan is not too complex and involves primary colors (close to standard marker colors) you might give it a trial run on some inexpensive flats, see what you get.

[Friday]

Spray adhesive from 3M, available at craft stores, should do the trick for short-term use.

Sydnie7, correct me if my memory if wrong, but, I remember 3M spray adhesive as having no forgiveness. Once the two surfaces come in contact it is hard to remove or reposition. I would think that an adhesive with a slower drying time might be better. This would give a little time to smooth out any wrinkles and to reposition if necessary.

Because I have it, I would use Tandy Leather's LeatherCraft Cement. Put the cememt on both the shoe and underside of the cloth. Position, smooth out and tape the edges to the sole and the inside of the foot opening. Allow to dry, remove the tape and trim up all edges. Once trimmed I might go back and apply a thin line of cement on all edge and work into the cloth.

If the shoes are relatively inexpensive I might get two pair. One to use as a test and the other incase the test pair did not meet your expectations.

Please post pictures of the process.

PS. I wonder if canvas pumps would work where you could put a line of reinforcing stitches along the edges of the tartan. Since the shoes will be covered in tartan cloth no one would see the base shoe's material.

Edit: - Whatever cement that is used make sure it is flexible after it drys. Something like epoxy will dry hard and crack as you walk and dance the night away.

[Dixiecat]

With a Scottish or Irish themed wedding, why not wear ghillies?

http://billyforsyth.co.uk/index.php?main_page=page&id=6

http://www.hullachan.com/IrishDanceShoes.html

The Hullachans especially will be very comfortable.

[Tobus]

Friday's advice is solid. I'm actually doing something similar right now... not with shoes, but with gluing tartan fabric to leather to act as a liner for the inside of a sporran I'm building. The trick is to make sure that the fabric stays glued solidly to the base material while still being flexible. I'm using Barge Cement, which is a very good product for this. But I'll warn you, any cement you use needs to be applied carefully. Most cements of this nature need to sit long enough to get 'tacky' before you press the items together. Especially when using tartan fabric. If you put the tartan fabric on the cement while it's still liquid, it will soak right through the fabric and leave you with a darkened blob showing through. And when it hardens, it will turn yellowish. So it's very important to make sure that the cement is in the perfect state when the fabric is applied. And I'm thinking this would be very difficult on a complex shape like a shoe.

The other problematic issue is trimming the fabric and avoiding fraying at the edges. On my sporran project, I am able to lay my flat pieces of leather on the table to cement the tartan fabric, then I trim the fabric carefully around the leather with scissors and apply Edge Kote to both the leather and the fabric to help reduce fraying. But on a shoe where you'd have to trim the fabric with an Xacto knife or some other awkward tool around the sole, you'll undoubtedly have fraying issues. I honestly don't have any advice on how to trim it and seal the edge of the fabric that will look nice.

[Friday]

But on a shoe where you'd have to trim the fabric with an Xacto knife or some other awkward tool around the sole, you'll undoubtedly have fraying issues. I honestly don't have any advice on how to trim it and seal the edge of the fabric that will look nice.

Thought of the day.
- Take masking tape and cover the shoe.
- Trim the tape to make a pattern, split the pattern along the back seam.
- Use the pattern to cut out a piece of tartan fabric.

The edge of the fabric could be fray checked by sewing a very thin piece of bind tape to the edges, ribbon folded in half might work for the binding tape. I may also be possible to simply stitch around the edge of the fabric to delay fraying until the glue has set.

[plaid preacher]

Have you check with a good shoemaker? It seems to me that a flat would be equally made and that might have a good idea about how to do it in tartan. It might cost a little but you would have a lovely finished product that wouldn't fray and you could wear again if you choose.

[Tobus]

Speaking of custom shoes, I totally forgot about something I saw on the show "Shark Tank". There's a company called The Ave Venice that will do custom printed canvas shoes. They take a pair of plain Vans or Converse sneakers, put it in a machine, and it prints any image on the shoes. They don't offer ballet slippers, but it might be worth talking to them and seeing if they could work that in, if you could find a pair of plain slippers that would take the printing like canvas does. Worst case, the Vans slip-on shoes might be able to be gussied up after printing with a tartan image to make-do. Just a thought.