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I finally made my own pair of slippers!

The base shoes used for my pair are a vintage leather 1930's pump. They were advertised as a size 6, but they are the same length as my size 5 pairs, but are a bit more narrow. The base shoes required some modifications before they were ready to be made into slippers. These modifications included:
 

  • Filling in the holes in the leather pattern with leather filler

  • Using leather paint to change the color of the inside of the uppers, and the original insole socks

  • Leather painting the exterior of the shoe red

  • Adhering Petersham ribbon along the base of the upper along the sole so that the overlays had something to be sewn onto

  • The original heels were removed and replaced with a vintage pair that is accurate to the pair of heels on the #1 primary pair of slippers 

  • Rubber top lifts added to the heel

  • Soles covered in leather paper so that there was one continuous sole from the toe to the top lift


As always, I hand sequined overlays made of silk georgette using custom made pre-aged sequins. Once the overlays were completed, the sequins were aged using several more methods, allowing the sequins to appear both metallic and translucent depending on the lighting. The overlays were attached to the shoe in the same way as the originals, which includes some stitching through the shoe, and some stitching through fabric along the base of the upper.

The bows were created by hand sewing glass jewels, extra thin bugle beads, and rose montee rhinestones, all of which were custom made, onto silk organza. The bugle beads were aged, as were the rose montee rhinestone settings. The organza was then mounted to cotton buckram cut into the shape of the bow. There was no leather used on the bows, as the originals do not have leather used on them either, despite what a former MGM employee told Rhys Thomas in the 1980s. The bows are then sewn to the vamp of the shoe with threads going through the throat line and through the overlay and shoe itself.

Orange felt is adhered to the front of the sole. Actually, it took 6 different felt colors before I was happy, so there is some visible old felt adhered to the shoe like on the originals.

 

As this pair is modeled after Judy Garland's primary pair, I put an Innes Shoe Company embossed stamp into both shoes. 

These shoes, like the primary pair, are marked #1 Judy Garland inside.


 

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