I don’t always put up blog posts about the videos I do for HGTV Handmade since I’m making a new DIY every single week, but I loved how today’s craft came out and wanted to share it with all of you. This week on HGTV Handmade was a challenge week, and our challenge was to decorate a pair of plain white sneakers. I decided to make mine donut-themed (or doughnut-themed, for the spelling sticklers out there). Keep reading to watch the video and learn more about how I made them!
I had a few ideas of what I might do to the shoes, including dip dying them or embroidering on them, but in the end, I decided to go for a fun donut motif. I painted the shoes pink and tan, and then sewed and glued on beads as the sprinkles, and I think they came out so cute!
One finishing touch was gluing a piece of orange fabric inside the shoes. If you were to wear them, no one would be able to tell, but as I said in the video, they’re not the most wearable shoes anymore, so as a display piece, these little details really help bring it together. Fun fact though – I had the idea to add the fabric right before filming the beauty shots, so the glue was still wet and you can see it a bit through the fabric. Oops!
My favorite part of the shoes is the 3D texture created by using beads as the sprinkles rather than just drawing them on. However, I ran into some problems sewing them through the thick canvas of the shoes, so I ended up gluing most of them, which doesn’t look quite as nice in my opinion. If I had another week to work on them I might have been able to figure out the sewing, but since I have so many videos to make all the time, sometimes I just have to channel Tim Gunn and make it work under deadline.
One of the problems with gluing rather than sewing is that the beads would slide around a bit while the glue was drying, even after I started using a hair dryer to set the glue before turning the shoes over. On the left you can see the first shoe I did where I really took my time and let the glue dry, and on the right you can see the result of rushing at the end of the night because I wanted to finish the shoes so I could go to bed. So pro tip – don’t do this craft when you’re exhausted, and leave enough time for each section of glue to dry before moving on.
But overall I am really happy with how they came out, and I hope you guys like them too! Send me a picture on Twitter, Tumblr, or Instagram if you decide to make them for yourself!
I cannot wait to see how the other girls decorate their shoes all week long. Make sure to stay tuned to this playlist to watch everyone’s videos, and subscribe to HGTV Handmade if you’re not already to see a new DIY video from me every single Monday!
