Yellow Skirt Freak Show Update!! and more...

Temptress Amber  of  Butane Anvil

has had her way with

the Travelling Yellow Skirt HERE,

and so has her HEN!!? 

See her twirl, mysterious in the cracking light

DO NOT MISS THE

Freakishly Wonderful Styling of this World Wonder

Go! GO NOW!!

_________________________________________________________

In more mundane news, I have finished my stretchy-boot upcycling project. (What a let-down topic after Temptress Amber and her Alpha Hen...)

BEFORE (as seen in post of May 13, Lurex in the alley)

AFTER

Groovalicious boots of blue and aqua MADNESS. I am very satisfied, I am.

Here's the process.

NOTE: I do not recommend painting stretchy fabric but desperate boots require desperate measures.

HOW TO:

1. Cleaning/Mending. I scraped and picked the remaining vinyl stretchy bits off the boot uppers to the extent possible with a wire brush and toothbrush and thoroughly cleaned and sandpapered the smooth surfaces. I sewed up a rip in the rear seam of the upper too.
2. Masking. I taped the boot soles and zippers with painters' tape and masked my calves with paper towel because I had to wear the boots during painting to reduce paint-cracking later.
3. Base coat. While wearing the boots, I applied two coats of gesso as a primer using my fingers to avoid brush marks. I wore rubber gloves for this. Although gesso is more brittle than regular acrylic paint, I wanted super coverage and adhesion on the stretchy black substrate, especially on the fleece-like areas where the adhesive wouldn't come off.
4. Painting. I applied coloured acrylic paint with rubber-gloved fingers. I wanted colour variation so one boot is noticeably more greenish than the other. For a clean line, I hand-brushed areas along the zipper and sole.
5. Finishing. I applied a coat of clear acrylic for protection and added shine.
6. Decoration. I hot-glued a fabric stripe down the front of the boots and added daisy zipper pulls that I bought at Dressew fabric shop for $3.00. I had to buy a glue-gun for this step.
7. DONE. But these can only be worn in fine weather. Do I care? NON!

This project took a couple of days with all the fiddly scraping, masking, and multiple coats of paint (while I was wearing the boots), but the time was worth it. Depending on how gingerly I wear these (not very I imagine) these boots will last a little longer, and when they start to deteriorate more, I'll love going crazy with more paint AND safety pins. The good thing about working on something I would otherwise junk is there is no risk of screw-up; that's true freedom.

I owe this project's success to Pao at Project Minima where I first learnt about shoe-painting. Hugs to you, Pao and all the other bloggers I have seen since in their upcycled footwear.

AND - 

Over at blog taibhsearachd (Gaelic for second sight), Janet of Yellowknife in the Yukon was needing an emergency yellow skirt fix so she upcycled a big sundress into her own version of it.  

Very cool - the perfect outfit for this beautiful indoor garden. Thanks, Janet. Gorgeous.

That's all from here. Hope you're having a swell week, everyone!