How To Make Flower Shoe Clips

If you're wondering what shoe clips are, you may need to read this article, 'What Are Shoe Clips?' first. But for those of you who already know what shoe clips are, this is just a short write on how you can make your own flower shoe clips.

Flower shoe clips are very popular in spring and summer. It is a festive way to dress up your pair of shoes, slides, slings, and flip-flops. Most department stores like Target and Wal-Mart do carry a few style. But some of those can be just plain boring. So if you're like me, I like to have my accessories made certain ways, that makes it more wearable for me. So, I would buy some and redo them, or I'll just make mine from scratch. It's just less work and more rewarding to do that.

Flower shoe clips are really easy to make as you really don't need to make the flower from scratch, you just need to pick up a few of the flowers that you like from the craft store. When you do pick your flowers, buy them in pair and try to get them in the same shades, as some of the flower do tend to have slightly different color shades and sizes. So you need to carefully pick the ones that are very identical in shade and size.

To make a pair of flower shoe clips you need:

1. Flowers - It's the main ingredient. A pair of medium size soft silk flower, any color you want, will do.
2. Shoe Clips Base - This is the metal piece that the flower will be attached to. It is the piece that secures the finished flower shoe clips to the shoe. Some people like to use small paper clips (ouch!) or earring clips in the absence of the shoe clips base. Those can work too, but they tend to scratch and pinch at your skin and can be very irritating as you walk. So I strongly recommend that you use the real shoe clip base. They are comfortable and grip better than the paper clips and earring clips.
3. Glue Stick/Glue Gun - These are needed to attach the flower to the shoe clip base.
4. 2 Pieces of Cotton fabric, Ribbon, or Flower petal. Each piece should measure about 1"L x .5"W. This will be used on the shoe clips to protect your shoe from the glue.

Once you have all the ingredients listed above, then it's time to put it all together.

The first thing you want to do is to cut off the stems, the plastic and metal stem below the flower. Try to get it all off without cutting the flower itself. Once that's done, it's time to begin.

To secure the flower unto the shoe clip base, you can either

1. Sew the flower to the base, or
2. Glue the flower to the base.

The latter secures it better. For this tutorial we'll use the glue.

Step 1: Apply glue to the center-back side of the flower as shown.

Step 2: Secure the base onto the glued area. Press base gently down on the glue to set.

Step 3: Dab the base, the part with the hole, with some more glue, as shown.

Step 4: Place one of the flower petal or any piece of fabric or ribbon (really tiny piece) over the glued area. This is to prevent the glue area from coming in direct contact with your shoes as it can damage that part of your shoe if it's made of real leather.

Once flowers are secured to the hole part of the base, wait a few minutes (about 5 minutes) to allow the glue to set well and hard. You may need to clean around the metal clip base to remove any excess glue residue. A damp cloth or paper towel does the job well.At this point, you are done making your flower shoe clips.

Making shoe clips is not hard at all. whether you're using flowers, fabric, leather or feathers, the process is the same. Once you know what you want, map out your materials, and follow the steps above. It's that easy.

Next time we'll take a look at how to use flowers for other accessories. Now, go ahead, attach the flower shoe clips to your shoes! Your shoes will thank you.

Curious about how the metal base actually attaches to the shoes? Then watch the accompanying video. You'll see first hand how to attach the finished shoe clip to your shoe.

Caution: The prongs on the shoe clips base has been known to wear on the inside of shoes. That is because most people tend to 'yank it off' their shoes, causing it to rip off their shoes little by little. The best way to remove the clip is to pull it gently away from the inside of the shoe.

If you would like to see some shoe clips and other accessories that I made, take a look here at my Etsy store.

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