Casual Friday: Coloured Tights and the Fluevog Vizzinis

Yes! Friday! Yes! Yes!

I'm going to whiz through this entry so I can go wake L up from his nap and hang out and play games and drink wine. Y'all will forgive me, I'm sure.

To those who also expressed concern about coloured tights for fall - will they be in? will they not? do we care? - screw 'em, I'm wearing them. Puh-leez. Like I have tights as mondo-cool as these ones and I'm NOT going to wear them. Nuh-uh.

I found these tights in the WIN thrift store a couple of months ago for $2.00 (yes, of course I washed them!). I'm sure that they are either Pamela Mann or Look From London tights, both of which I've purchased new, both of which costs $20-25 a pair. These were fab to wear all day, and my co-workers loved them.

The purple lace dress is one that I've had for about a year. I thrifted it for $9.50 and have worn it 3 times prior - every time with patterned tights. Check it out:

• Last, in December 2013 with burgundy lace tights;
• In June 2013 with leopard tights; and
• Right after I bought it, in May 2013 with my floral Look From London tights.

I have my floofy navy blue sheer Noa Noa underskirt on to give the purple dress a little more length. Even with tights, this dress is short when I'm sitting at a desk.

Vizzini wanted to attack my earrings.

He really wanted to get hold of my shoes...again.

The stuff:

These shoes are the fabulous debut of the Fluevog Vizzinis, named after my own little holy terror, Vizzini! But no, you can't go buy them yourself. Why not? Because although you can buy Fluevogs, you can't buy these ones. 

I. made. them.

Dress (Jacob, thrifted), underskirt (Noa Noa), shoes (Wonders Ayers/Vizzinis, Fluevog), earrings (thrifted).

This is what these pink shoes used to look like.

And in fact, I do have these shoes. I've bought them twice. The first time, using a gift certificate for my birthday from my Winesday Women two years ago. The second time, after Vizzini went in my closet and ATE MY SHOES. Go here to read the heart-rending story of a Cat Out For Vengeance.

So yes, I finally got around to dyeing my shoes. I decided that PINK would be the colour.

I spent less than $20 for supplies from the cobbler.

I trimmed the excess leather off from the missing strap and evened out the other shoe to match.

You can see that Vizzini also had his way with that strap. It's supposed to have 3 more inches of strap for buckling. Grrr. Little beast.

I did kind of a half-assed finish on these.

Heh, I feel better playing with these shoes, knowing they were already destroyed once. Like anything I can do would be worse.

I did a better job on trimming the extra buckle on the side.

All trimmed, in my cardboard box spray area out on the deck.

I am ready to use the Leather Preparer to remove the excess colour.

Whoa, they weren't kidding when they said to do it in a well-ventilated area. My deck was not ventilated enough...

I liked the sort of antiqued finish left around the edges and near the stitching. Next job, tape 'em up.

As a practiced modeler and crafty-type person, I am good at making sure that my half-assed job doesn't look too asstastic.

I even remembered to tape up the buckles! (gives self a pat on the back).

I stuffed an old towel into both shoes so that the insides wouldn't get coated with pink spray.

Blurriness due to inhaled alcohol fumes

I started light coats of pink, first one side, then the other, letting them thoroughly dry between coats.

I kept coating them until I ran out of dye.

In hindsight, I probably should have bought another can of dye to make sure they came out really even, but dammit, I wanted them done!

A rather vivid bubblegum pink, just like Vizzini's little pink tongue.

As there were some areas that took more paint than others, my next thought was to antique them a bit, and take some of that uber-pink edge off.

I tested black and navy blue shoe polish on the pink taped soles. I preferred the look of the navy over the black; the black looked too dirty.

I rubbed the edges, seams and the stitching with navy polish then buffed it off.

I liked the tie-dye effect of it.

To give them a nice polish, I buffed them with clear Woly.

I love Woly. I use it on all my leather shoes.

The clear took a big more of the navy off, and then I removed the masking tape.

Voila! The unveiling of the Fluevog Vizzinis!

I did a good job taping them. Quite proud of myself.

John's signature is still there.

I'll probably wear them like this for a while, and then play with them some more.

How would you customize them? Crystals? Glitter? Another colour? I think the possibilities are vast.

Have a great weekend! I'll be back on Sunday.