Weddingbee Blog

Remember when I posted about my experience in buying ruby slippers to wear for the wedding to pay homage to my childhood obsession with The Wizard of Oz? In case you need a refresher, here’s the short version: I bought some ruby slippers made from red sequins from a seller on Etsy, and they weren’t what I was expecting in terms of quality, particularly for the price. So, I sent them back.

OK! So, after sending the original shoes back, I started brainstorming on ways I could make them myself. My first inclination was to just glitter a pair of shoes with a mixture of fine red glitter and Mod Podge, but after thinking it over, I decided I wanted something with a stronger effect. After all, The Wizard of Oz and my obsession over wanting to be Dorothy as a kid is a HUGE part of who I am today (I collect Oz memorabilia, have all the books, etc.), so I wanted these shoes to be show stoppers. I traveled over to the DIY section of Weddingbee for inspiration, and there I found multiple ladies who had strassed their shoes using different sizes of rhinestones and industrial adhesive called E-6000:

DIY Peacock Bling Shoes from Weddingbee user miss_n_hope

Swarovski Cobalt Crystal Shoes from Weddingbee user Aure

You guys, I saw these and I knew I had to do the same thing for my slippers. I just had to. So after perusing the dozens of shoe strassing DIY tutorials on Weddingbee, I bought the supplies I needed to get started:

• A bottle of E-6000 industrial strength adhesive (they had this at Walmart for about $4)
• 6,000 red rhinestones in sizes 2mm, 3mm, 4mm, and 5mm from a seller on eBay (all total they cost me around $25)
• A pair of red leather Aerosoles heels (on sale for $39.99 from Aerosoles.com!)

To pick up the rhinestones and glue them on the shoes, I fashioned my own jewel pick-up tool using the handle of a small paintbrush and a wad of Sticky Tack resusable adhesive:

Easier to pick up rhinestones than with tweezers, in my opinion!

I started with a pair of red leather heels I found on sale from Aerosoles with a two-and-a-half-inch heel. Aerosoles are notoriously comfortable, so I’m hoping I can wear them for most of the reception:

The shoes that would become the ruby slippers…

I started by lining all the edges with the 3mm stones to give the shoes an overall polished look when they’re done:

Starting to fill in the gaps!

As far as placing the rhinestones go, there really was no rhyme or reason to it. I would put a few of the 5mm ones on kind of scattered-like, and then just fill in the gaps with the smaller-sized stones. One tip I will add to make your shoes look better: use less glue than you think you need to, and let the glue dry for a few seconds before you try to stick it on the shoe. The glue gets nice and tacky after a few seconds and will stick much easier if you wait just a bit! Using less glue also keeps it from gushing out from underneath the rhinestone too much.

I finished the heel, first:

Look at that sparkle!

And then I moved on to the rest of the shoe. All finished:

A closeup of the rhinestones

Model shot!

Overall, I’m super happy with the way these shoes are turning out. The only major bummer is how long they’re taking to finish! I really underestimated the amount of time these were going to take, and if you’re thinking about taking on a similar project, make sure you allot yourself PLENTY of time to finish. You should also probably develop some patience, since the gratification is slow developing. But in the end, the effect is fantastic and I really can’t wait to wear these on my wedding day! Not only are they leaps and bounds better than the version I purchased, but they’re also less expensive AND made with leather heels. And I think the best part of all is that I get to claim I made them!

Anyone else strassing a pair of heels to wear on their wedding day? Did I make the right choice in going the rhinestone route?