If you’re like us, you may have been drooling over Louboutin’s Rollerball Spiked Loafers wishing you could gather up your pennies just to own one pair. Well, they’ve been around for quite a while now, are completely sold out and there have been tons of variations that you can find just about anywhere. We figured that we could just do it ourselves and add our personal touches for a fraction of the price. You can pick your favourite sized spikes (or even mix and match), spike in a pattern formation or switch up the spacing of the spikes! In this tutorial we will be sharing the process of transforming your boring loafers into works of art!
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
- a pair of loafers (we used leather & pony fur loafers)
- about 300 0.95cm screw-on spikes with a diametre of 0.7cm
- a leather punch
- screw driver
- chalk or pencil (optional)
- ruler (optional)
TUTORIAL:
[ MARK ] – (Optional Step) Start with measuring out your preferred placement of spikes. Don’t forget that you are marking where you would like holes to be punched. The diametre of the spikes we used are 0.7cm so the holes were punched with approximately 1cm spacing. You can mark the whole shoe in this step. We simply punched the shoes without marking it because it is very difficult to mark pony fur.
[ PUNCH ] – Before punching the shoe, use a scrap piece of leather or fabric to ensure that you have set your leather puncher to the correct size. Once you have your leather punch ready, start by punching your first hole. Make sure you apply enough pressure to cut through all layers of the shoe. Make sure that the punch is clean and remove all the leather remnants.
[ INSERT SCREW ] – Place the screw backing of the spike through the hole to ensure that the hole isn’t too small or too big. Adjust accordingly.
[ SPIKE ] – Screw the spike onto the backing. It is not necessary to tighten the spike to the full extent quite yet because you may need to remove the spike to use the screw as a hole punching placement reference
[ REPEAT ] – Repeat: Punch, Insert Screw, Spike. Try to punch as much as possible. Leather punching is the best method for this project in comparison to drilling holes. We were able to get 4 rows of spikes into the shoes before moving onto the drilling method.
[ DRILL ] – If you would like spikes along the toes of your shoes you will have to drill holes. Stuff the toes of your shoes with newspaper. Make sure that it’s stuffed as tightly as you can possibly stuff it so that you have a firm surface to drill against. Pick the correct drill hole tool. Your first attempt should be placed in a spot that is more inconspicuous in case of error. Make sure that you have someone to help you by holding the shoe as your drill. Remember to place the drill on your marking, hold the drill straight, start off slow and once the hole is started – drill full speed until drill has gone through the shoe. This may be tricky but you’ll need to make sure that the leather is completely emptied from the hole. You may end up needing some scissors to snip out dangling pieces of leather.
[ SPIKE ] – Insert screw backings and screw on spikes. These spikes on the toes may be a bit more difficult to tighten but be sure to do your best!
[ REPEAT ] – Repeat: Drill, Insert Screw, Spike. No need to cover your whole shoe, just personalize it! As you can see ours don’t have spikes on the heels.
Thanks for reading! Are you gonna try this DIY? Tweet us a photo @everybodyisugly
by Samantha of lipglossandblack
Images by Syl and Sam & from Chictopia
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