Maka Albarn Shoes--On the cheap!

Oh hey! I totally didn't forget about this, I've just... been unable to finish the first tutorial. I needed a glue gun. I couldn't get the one at home sent to me at school in time, sooo I just waited until I came home for Thanksgiving. And now... Maka's shoes!

Step 1: Get some black shoes, and DUCT TAPE.

Alright, so the shoes I bought were a little short. They're high-tops (are they even called that anymore? Geez, I sound old), or, they cover at least an inch or two above your ankles. A little short for Maka's shoes, considering that there are two more belt-y straps on top, but I'll worry about that later. Most likely what will happen is, I'll wear thick black socks and have those belted around my calves. (Or just not go with them at all.) But, for those who are going to go all-out, get some for-real boots for this. I bought these at Goodwill for like, $7. Cheap = cosplay. Hardcore kids? Go for the Doc Martens. The same things that I will apply to the shoe-straps can go for the belt-y straps as well.

So what I did here was duct tape everything. It was a little less time consuming, though cutting up strips of duct tape to match the bottom of a shoe is no easy feat when your scissors aren't the best. I did duct tape the bottoms a little, but I don't recommend it, especially if you will be walking outside. Weather isn't kind to tape, even the godliness of duct tape.

Step 2: The straps!

Alright, you can see we have the completed shoes on the right. Whoo, shiny! Now, other materials you will need to gather in this el cheapo shoe-making project are... more duct tape (possibly. I only used 3/4 of a roll, but I bought two rolls just in case. Mistakes DO happen), some fairly flexible cardboard, (make sure it's the thin kind!), and a box cutter. Cut two thinner strips, about 1.5" wide, and two larger strips, about 2" wide. The strips themselves can be any length as long as they are over 12" long. You can cut them down to size later.

Proceed to wrap the strips in duct tape. I did about three layers, to completely cover the cardboard, and to hide any weird mistakes I made while diagonally wrapping the cardboard. (this is why you need a LOT of duct tape)

Another, completely alright thing to do is use thick, white cloth strips. I'd use something like burlap, or another easily-made-stiff piece of cloth. It will help with the last part I talk about in Step 3.

Step 3: GLUE-GUN TIME!

I apologize in advance about the crappy condition of these next pictures, I had to take them with my webcam. My camera's battery died, and my charger is in my apartment... three hours from my parents' house.

 

I did this extremely weird. I'll be the first to admit that, but I like my idea, as much as I'm starting to be like "ehhhhhhh, maybe this won't be so cool".

Maka has these black dots on the back stripe of her shoe. I would assume they were decorative buttons. Well, as much as I scoured JoAnne Fabrics, I couldn't find buttons that were suitable enough. So, I went to Wal-Mart, and spent an hour scouring the store for magnets. (they were with the office supplies?) They're small enough, they're black enough, and they happen to solve my mystery of 'How will I get my shoes on if I have this strap over where I go to tie my shoes?' Magnetic power!

So, carefully go through, and make sure your strips are long enough to reach around to the proper area, around the arch of your foot/the shoe. Mark the spot where the black dot would be on the strip, and proceed to start gluing away. Remember there's only five spots!

 

Now comes the fun part: gluing the strips to the shoes. I would reccomend gluing in three spots: both ends, obviously, and also in the middle, above the heel. It helps keep it steady and on the shoe.

Ta-dah, you're halfway done! Don't worry that much if your spots are not spaced equally (like mine are), because unless it's like, two close together and then five inches between the next ones, no one will give it that much notice. They'll most likely just be impressed that you went to so much trouble making the shoes to begin with.

 

For this next part, it took some magnetics. It doesn't exactly work when you glue the polar opposites facing each other, thus ruining your plan to keep from buying snap-buttons, which very well might destroy your hard work. For the side I would detatch to lace up the shoes, (outside of the foot, but it doesn't particularly matter), I put one magnet on the bottom strap, one on the inside of the top strap, and then one on the outside of the top strap for decoratiion. On the opposite side, I just glued the magnet that was already there to the strip, and glued another magnet on the outside for the decoration. It looks like a simple snap, but as you can see from the smaller picture, it's just more magnets.

Aren't my pink socks awesome? These are the 'completed' shoes. I may go in and fix them to have the belted straps as well, but as for how I'll do that, I'm still working on it.

The biggest problem you will have is the straps staying down. The magnets I bought aren't particularly strong, so that might be part of the problem, but another is most likely the materials I used. Cardboard and duct tape needs to be bend and kneaded into form. I will most likely be working the top straps for a few weeks to loosen them up enough that they will not pop open, which is why I suggested earlier that you can just as easily use thick, white cloth. My only reasoning for using duct tape and carboard is that I could get those materials for cheap. I am a college student. =D

Altogether, I probably spent a grand total of about $15 on all the materials and the shoes themselves. I would guess that I made it all in about three to four hours, collectively, so modifying a pair of shoes is not the big fuss you might think it is.

Have fun and I hope this helped a little! Look for more tutorials on my Maka costume soon!

Hello!

Well, like the blog says, this is my cosplay blog. I'll probably cross-post a few things with my eljay (who uses that anymore? (me)), but for the most part, I'll be working on tutorials and other cosplay-ish things here.

This year I'm doing a Maka Albarn costume, from Soul Eater, which is a fantastic anime that you should go check out--right now! (www.animeshippuden.com has all the subbed episodes. Or it's coming to American DVD sometime this winter. Whatever you choose) I considered doing a Medusa cosplay as well, but I decided against it mostly due to the hair issue. I would probably have to have a wig or buy some kind of weird extensions with my own blond hair.

Anyway, look for a tutorial soon on the first part of Maka's costume--the basic outfit!