How to "Make" Elf Shoes

Greetings, Earthlings!  (What?  Elves are earthlings, too.)

As you know, this time of year I do my same ol' busking routine, except in a home-made elf costume.  Since I first made it in 2010 it has changed slightly every year, and this was the year it was time to replace my shoes.  They weren't comfortable enough to endure many hours of foot-puppetry, and the curls on the toes kept falling over.  This project took two afternoons, and was quite easy, if you don't mind glue fumes!

Here's what my final product looked like, since I guess you're supposed to do that on DIY blogs:

Wow!  Perfect, flawless elf shoes!

Note: I recommend NOT driving a car in elf shoes, because (1) the curls will get all smooshed, and (2) if the curls don't get smooshed, they'll hook onto something then you won't be able to move between the gas and the brake and you will NOT have a holly jolly Christmas if that happens.  A sleigh is okay, though.

Materials:
-1 pair sneakers (I used Dansko Vedas that took a beating waitressing last summer but were perfectly refurbishable)
-Fabric of your choice, probably no more than one yard, but I didn't measure.  I went with green velvet leftover from my elf costume
-1 wire coat hanger
-A little bit of batting
-Laces (I used sparkly silver cord from Jo-Ann, I think two yards)
-Other "accents" (Fur for around the ankle, silver ribbon for around the shoe, etc.)
-Jingle bells for the toes, of course!

Tools:
-Heavy duty super glue.  Lots of it.  I went through a whole tube (For the original pair I used Fabri-Tac but wasn't totally satisfied with its strength.  This time I used Aleene's Super Fabric Adhesive which was better.  It smells really strong but I didn't feel woozy or anything, and it's great for peeling off fingers)
-Wire cutters/pliers
-Rubber bands
-Clothespins/clamps
-Scotch tape
-Awl, or other pointy thing
-Fabric scissors
-Sewing machine or needle and thread

Instructions:
Clear your afternoon, spread out some newspaper, make a cup of peppermint hot chocolate (you're an elf, right?), put on some Christmas music (just kidding, trashy pop music will do just fine), and get to work!  Oh, and I recommend balling up newspaper and shoving it inside each shoe for support.


STEP 1: Curls
The curls are the hardest part of elf shoes.  I just recycled the curls from my old shoes, so unfortunately my memory of how to make them is a little fuzzy, but it's pretty straightforward.

1.1 Draw your desired curl on the wrong side of a double layer of fabric.  I use chalk.  (This photo was me doing this step, then bailing and deciding to use the old ones, so make yours prettier!)

I really hope you can do better than this.

1.2 Cut it out, leaving room for a wee seam, and cut the "stem" longer than the curl will be to attach it.  Hand- or machine-sew it closed, right sides together.

1.3 Turn it inside out (this part will be hard, but I have full confidence that you'll figure out, and you'll have to since I forget how I did it--use a safety pin maybe?).  Stuff it with batting, sew jingle bell to the end (but do this at the end if you don't want jingling throughout the project!)

Note: when the bells fall off, and they will, I quickly put new ones on using plain, stud earrings.  You can get them on tightly and apparently the back will stay on the earring more strongly than stitches hold.  Also, it's a great surprise when you're looking everywhere for that earring then find it years later on your elf shoe!

STEP 2: Curl supports
On my old shoes, the curls kept falling over.  I had one L-shaped support, so the curls couldn't flop forwards, but they could flop left, right, and backwards, yanking the whole support out of place so I had wires sticking straight up.  This time, I did it right.

2.1 Using your wire cutters and pliers, make the two supports shown below out of the coat hanger.  Both are a single piece of wire folded in half in kind of a loop, approximately an inch and a half tall.  On one, bend the "feet" so they go forward at a right angle, so the whole unit is an L-shape.  The feet are about an inch long.  On the other, bend the feet 90 degrees to the sides, so it's two L's back to back.  Because of these braces, the curls won't be able to flop around at all.  Sounds like each piece is five inches long when you cut it.

2.2 Time for the glue.  I attached the front ones first, near the toe, and put a rectangle of card stock (cut out from the glue packaging) over the feet for extra support.  I put glue under each foot and under the card.  The big rubber band was great for holding it together while everything dried.  For the back one, I couldn't find means of extra support, so I just glued the feet themselves, which seem to be holding together.  The back braces kept falling towards the front ones, though, which I allowed.  They seem to be stronger when they touch, so no problem.

More like quail shoes.

2.3 Shove the braces through the batting of your curl, and smother the bottom of the curl in glue!

This is the only photo where it looks like I did a good job.

STEP 3: Cover shoes
My shoes had clear "sides" where the lace holes were, so I decided to just follow the design of the shoe while covering it.  If your shoes are different, do this differently!

3.1 The first part you'll be covering, if your shoes are like mine, is the toe and tongue, so it's useful getting the lace flaps out of the way.  I found that twist ties and a rubber band worked perfectly.

Ah yes, interior sweat marks from Cape Cod summer waitressing.

As you can tell, my footprints are awesome.

3.2 Cut out enough fabric to cover the tongue and toes.  Figure out where it will be placed and mark where the curl lies (I just pinch it with my fingers because precision is not my strong suit).  Fold that spot and cut a little slit so when you open it it will be a good size for the curl.  Don't make it too big or it will look bad!  Put the curl through the hole. 

Where's my shoe?  There it is!

3.3 Lift up the fabric (I think I bunched it around the curl and clothespinned it so I could use both hands to squeeze the bejesus out of the glue tube) and put a butt-load of glue from the curl all the way up the tongue.  Gently put the fabric back down, smoothing it as you go (like putting on a bumper sticker!) until that area is covered.  Then, one side at a time, lift the loose fabric and glue the sides, affixing the fabric.

 

3.4 Once it's dry, trim the fabric so it's not hanging everywhere.  Or tuck and glue it under the top and sides of the tongue if you're not a slacker like me, 'cause that would probably look nice or something.  Don't cut the sides too close to the lace flap, since overlap there will be okay.  Luckily my shoes have a red line on the rubber on the sides, so that was my guide in trimming the sides. 

3.5 Time to cover the lace flap and the back.  Cut out a piece of fabric big enough for all necessary parts, one for each side.  I started by applying glue just around the lace grommets, and affixing that part of the fabric.  This time, I do tuck it over by about an inch, so glue both sides!

There's something majestic about wet glue.

Getting there...

3.6 Once that's on, put glue on the rest of the exposed fabric, and on some rubber (up to the red line in my case), tucking it into the shoe over the sides.  Trim the excess, being careful to make it look nice where it meets the front fabric piece.  On the back I overlap the two sides by half an inch so the very back has a stripe of double-layer fabric, like a bowling shoe.  I used clothespins and other crap to clamp the tucked parts while they dried.  The highest clothespin there is where I had to fold a little triangle down where there was extra fabric due to the angle.  I'm too tired to find the words to explain that part; you'll figure it out, my dear elf.

STEP 4: Laces
The laces were really hard and annoying.  I chose to only lace them through every other hole, for reasons of both aesthetics and laziness.

4.1 As you'll soon notice, your holes are all covered up.  Use whatever tool you want (I did some with an Exacto knife and some with an awl after I accidentally put the knife in a puddle of glue) to just poke through the layer of fabric covering them, or two, if they're covered from the inside as well.

Got lazy and didn't take a "poking through holes" photo

4.2 Prep the laces.  I bought this fancy silver cord, and the ends were taped from the store.  Once I cut it in half for each shoe, those ends started unraveling.  I wrapped them in tons of tape to keep them secure, but then I couldn't get the damn things through the holes.  This part was very frustrating.  After much trial and error, I realized I was just increasing the diameter by too much with that much tape, so I dramatically sliced the old tape off and put a single piece of tape on each end, just long enough to go around once, and made it really tight.  This made it possible to shove it through a hole enough to then grab the end on the outside with the pliers.  Another reason to only do a few holes!

A perfect bow

STEP 5: Fur
If you want to be a REAL elf, you've gotta have fur around your ankle.   The annoying part is that you're working with a circle, and this material is stiff.  So just kind of bending it to fit isn't going to work.  Therefore, I cut one piece of fur long enough to cover the back half, and two smaller pieces that would go from the back fur to the laces.  I trimmed it to look less geometric, but as you can see in the final photo, it looks real bad.  Whatever.  My good glue ran out by this step, and the less hardcore Fabri-Tac kind didn't cut it with the synthetic backing of the fur, so I swore a lot and strained my thumb muscles to get more out of the good tube.  If you're getting low on strong glue, save it for the fur and use crappy, inferior glue for other parts.

Fur of a real baby polar bear

Ignore the ribbon!  I'm just showing you the fur, goddamnit!

STEP 6: Ribbon
We'll call it ribbon, but isn't it "bric a brac" or something in the crafting world?  Or is that only if it's zig-zag?  The nice thing about putting a silvery thing along the line where fabric meets shoe is that it can cover the crappy job of cutting you did.  This step is pretty self-explanatory: glue glue glue.  Then hours of fun peeling the glue that oozed through the holes off your fingers.

It's beginning to look a LOT like Christmas.

Voilá!  You're done!  I still have to trim the bits of green that ended up below the ribbon line, but my Exacto knife is too gluey so I need to find another means.  Elf shoes are best served with striped tights!

Trying out the multiple angles like in photos of shoes for sale online

Doesn't look like a Dansko sneaker at all!  Humor me here, folks...

Kicking some Christmas ass

Feel free to leave a comment with any questions.  Happy crafting!

 

Oh, just standing here.

Sophie's Smokin' Cheesebox

Happy Holiday Season, folks!  This December is sort of a milestone, because it's my fifth elf season.  Crazy that it's already been five years (actually, four, right) since I first bought green fabric and studied elf costumes online while designing mine.

Here's a throwback to my first-ever day elf busking, in Copley Square, Boston:

Let's see...no elf shoes, no elf ears, no petticoat, no hand warmers, no paint job on box (it looks so naked!), no pretty sign, and certainly no puppet.  I didn't yet own a backpacker backpack, since I ditched that red pack in favor of the day pack that came with my big pack that Christmas.  I was using these red nylon straps I bought on eBay and received in a re-used frozen pierogi box, and I was in my reddish hair phase.  When this photo was taken I had never played in Northampton, which is hard to imagine.

Oh, almost forgot, my accordion was a reindeer:

Fast-forward four years, and my act is very different.  I'm a real busker now!  And today, I proved myself to be "hardcore," and I am proud of it.  Here's the "after," split up, since no photo of the two of us together from this elf season has shown up yet:

It was a really fabulous day, which I needed.  Town was hopping since it's the penultimate Saturday before Christmas, the Nutcracker had two shows, and there was a Christmas tree lighting celebration around the corner.  So I set up at 11:30, to make sure I got a spot and to get the lunch crowds, and packed up at 7:00.  Phew!

I was quite uncomfortable at times.  The wind was gusting, and I lost some money as a result.  Be grateful, you Brits and Europeans, that you earn mostly metal!  I alternated periods of being fine to periods of being cold, even after I ran inside to add more thermals while a kind passerby who also happens to be my mother guarded my setup.  My feet hurt, my ears hurt with the pressure of the hat, and my left fingertips were getting inexplicably split open.  My body generally ached from both playing accordion and doing foot-puppetry and the added fatigue of bending my knees and elbows through 4-5 layers of clothing.

And this is why it's a job; why I can call it "going to work," and why I'm satisfied when I come home tired.  Last night, as I was walking to the car, I was following three young guys who had just exited an open mic holding guitars.  One of them suggested "we should play on the sidewalk sometime this summer," and the others enthusiastically agreed.  Right, "this summer."  I resisted the urge to tell them that you're either a busker or you're not, because nobody likes a contrary elf.

It is sessions like today's--marathons, cold, or both--that make me LOVE being a busker, not loathe it, and want to play even more, once my biceps stop spasm-ing.  I am also pleased to call today my second-longest outing ever, at 7.5 hours, just behind the 8 hours on New Year's Eve 2012.  Phew!  I put a lot of time and money into my act, into making it look good, and especially into costumes.  I recently spent more than I made last weekend purchasing more lights, velcro, fabric glue, ribbon, elastic, etc., and was wondering if it was really worth it.  And with quotes like "You deserve something for your costume alone" and "I don't usually give to buskers but you've obviously put a lot of work into this" and just "you look fabulous," I'm sure that it is.  I love my goddamn elf costume.

Before we get to the goodies, I must mention how wonderful the men at Ted's Boot Shop are.  Since I abandoned my old regular spot two weeks ago and set up in front of their shop, they have been welcoming, supportive, and encouraging.  Various employees have invited me to come in and warm up and one reportedly returned to the shop after his break, around my hour six, and announced "Sophie's hardcore!"  It's nice to be appreciated!

It's been a long time since I've written a post full of numbered tidbits, and I've got a whole page of notes.  Here we go!

Saturday, December 13, 2014

1.  I often hear people read my signs aloud, and today included a good one: "Sophie's......smokin'......cheesebox!"  Close!

2. I've discovered the limit of how many movements the human body can do at once: playing accordion, doing a foot-puppet, and smiling are okay, but don't try to additionally wink!

3. Sometimes people will compliment a song, then say "Keep it going!"  And it's often unclear if it's just a "keep up the good work" or if they actually want me to keep that song going.  If they don't and I re-start it, they're like "Uhhh you just played that."  Can't win!

4. There's an old lady in town who often stops by with her walker, and always wants me to play Christmas songs.  I began Jingle Bells for her, and she just lit up when she saw the puppet dancing.  So she gave me strict instructions: "Make her dance faster now!  Faster!!"  I'm going, I'm going!

5. So....my dream came true.  One of my many busker fantasies, this one active since the summer.  A man, just a normal white-haired middle-aged man, not even a metal dude, came up and asked, "How about some Iron Maiden this Christmas?"  !!!!!!  I actually asked if it was a joke, since I have so badly wanted someone to request it.  So I gave him the main riff of "Fear of the Dark" and we were both extremely happy.

6.  Speaking of which, I've been trying to determine which of my songs is least Christmas-y.  "Twin Peaks" and "Werewolves of London" are both in the running, but "Fear of the Dark" is disqualified due to its relevant solstice themes.

7.  I was talking to some "fans" when I heard one of the Ted's Boot Shop guys addressing my crowd as well.  He was saying, "Look at her outfit.  Now look at her marionette's outfit!  They match!"  Aw, thanks, John!!

8. I can't believe I hadn't thought of this before: when you're taking a selfie with someone and that someone is an elf, you're taking a freaking ELFIE.

9. "Game of Thrones...love it!!!" says a passerby.  A really old lady, that is!  "Love it" is right!

10. I had a request for Beer Barrel Polka late tonight, when I had full gloves on, a combination I usually don't agree to, but I was able to do it!  Go figure.

11.  The best part about having a marionette, just saying, is that when you reach down to grab money or whatever you can talk to her, compliment her performance, point out a passerby, etc.  Tonight I secretly fist bumped her, and quickly tried to make it look like I was adjusting something.

12. It was a good night for song recognition: I got specific compliments for Twin Peaks, Wallace and Gromit, Downton Abbey, and Werewolves of London.

13.  How could I forget the clementines!  When I left the house this morning, I put a clementine into my bag to eat later.  When I started playing it was clear that I needed an extra paperweight for my money, so I  implemented the clementine.  Later, I was fishing around for gloves #1 in my bag, and found another clementine, so I added it.  When it was time for gloves #2 I found ANOTHER clementine.  At various points looking in my bag, I found a total of five clementines.  No wonder my bag has been so heavy!  I bring them when I busk, but then never eat them.

14.  It's no secret that beggars don't like me.  My first weekend back, I set up not far from a lady who was begging.  After a while her co-beggar walked by, and when she reached their setup I clearly heard the first one say, "You see what I'm up against?"  I do feel a little guilty, since they'd probably make more money if I wasn't there.  So I've begun giving them money sometimes, since it's in my best interest to be on their good sides, if possible, and I've begun a nice camaraderie with the woman  who sells her crocheted goods.  She stays out late so I walk by her on the way to the car, and I've started giving her my hand-warmers since they still have hours of warmth and I'm done with them.  There isn't a point to this bit here, just thinking aloud, I guess, about the busker vs. beggar debate.

15. Lastly, I saw so many wonderful people that I know, which is always fabulous.  High school people, teachers, former co-workers, parents of friends, "fans," neighbors, you name it.  These people, in addition to strangers, warm my heart and bring me hot chocolates!

This is getting a little too cheesebox, so I'll sign off and go to bed.  I'll feel this in the morning!  (The busking, not the blogging.)

Till next time.