Clip Clop

My kitty-boo is totally a shoe girl. Whenever I kick off my boots, she promptly tries to crawl inside them. She regularly lays down on the flats that I leave by the back door. If I ever left my tennis shoes where she could get to them, she would chew through the laces.

Oh right. Elliott chews through laces, fabric and ribbon. I have lost a few sweaters, bras and shoes to her teeth. She is no longer allowed in my bedroom — ever — because she cannot be trusted around my clothing.

Once upon a time, I had these adorable green shoes with bows on the toes. One day, Elliott ate through one of the bows.

It seemed like a shame to get rid of them over something so small, but I knew I wouldn't wear them again with a chewed-up bow. So I decided to nix the bows altogether and make some shoe clips.

I really wish that idea had worked out.

I couldn't decide what I wanted to replace the bows with, so I figured I could make a few different types of shoe clips for maximum interchangeability and mix-matching. I settled on some pretty fabric flowers and some angular metal pieces, and returned from Hobby Lobby with goodies in tow.

I tried to hot glue my metal circle pieces to some alligator clips, but the circle pieces kept popping off when I tried to affix the clips to the shoes. No bueno. I didn't have a back-up plan, so the next best option seemed to be to hot-glue the "clips" to the shoes themselves. I decided that the metal circles would match more of my outfits than the fabric flowers, and got to work doctoring my pretties.

I trimmed off the bows and hot-glued the laces' remnants down to the top of the shoe.

Then hot-glued the circles down.

I wore them around the house for awhile over the weekend, and luckily the metal circles haven't popped off yet. I suppose if they do, the fabric flowers will get their turn!

Have you ever altered any clothing or shoes to make them usable again?