ALIENS Ellen Ripley - Reebok Alien Stompers
wetcelery
Active Member
Lmao, this is super daunting!! About to make the first tongue just now!! :wacko
wetcelery
Active Member
DAY 2 (17/9/2015)
First off, here are the materials I bought for customising the shoes:
red leatherette at £8.99p/m (I just bought 10cm at 90p which was enough)
a white vinyl leather material
cotton batting
Total cost was around £3-5 because I didn't need a lot, a lot cheaper than I was expecting.
To make the tongue, I had plans of filling it with cotton batting to make it a little sturdier but all the while slim enough to make it easy to handle to create the folds later. My measurements were 3.5" wide by 22" long. Same for the cotton batting with a bit extra to make the top of the tongue thicker so that it holds better. Right sides of the pleather facing each other and the cotton batting pinned on the outside.
Then sewing close to the edge that is open:
Once done, I turned it inside out. It's really handy to have a bit of patience and a long ruler at this point to reach the corners and to make the edges as smooth as possible. I tried ironing it out a bit, even with a towel on top to avoid melting the pleather but it didn't work that well...
Afterwards, I took a needle and red threat and started to create the folds:
So quite simple but time consuming (took me about 2 hours the first go), just fold the tongue as tight as you can then thread it through so that it holds together. The trick to using the thread allows you to adjust the folds, whilst you're working on it and even once you're done, so you don't need to worry about hot-glueing it wrong (and melting it) or messing up. Plus, you can always snip it and redo places you're not too keen on.
Do another row of thread in the middle so it keeps the folds quite tight:
Then lastly, on the remaining side:
And there it is! Once folded, the final length of the tongue should be about 10" (I worked this out from the pre-existing tongue length, and judging from the screen caps the distance between the second velcro strap and the size of the Reebok label and came to the conclusion that the overall tongue length is about 10" for the 9" height Alien Stompers).
And this is what it roughly looks like on the shoe!
Not too shabby, I'm pretty chuffed that my idea worked. The tongue is a bit floppy but then again, it'll be sitting against my leg and held with the velcro, so I'm not too worried. Now to attach it on the shoe to see what it looks like. This part was pretty tough because it was quite awkward sewing it to the shoe, not to mention very very difficult to penetrate. I ended up only doing enough of the front row (as pictured where my needle sits) and couldn't get any more coverage but it seems to be enough. I just made sure to do as many loops as I could in those few holes. I'm contemplating hot-glueing but again, I worry about melting it and placing it wrong. I think I'll just stick to this for now. It took me a good hour or so getting it on.
So that's the first tongue done! Now onto the second one in the next post!
First off, here are the materials I bought for customising the shoes:
red leatherette at £8.99p/m (I just bought 10cm at 90p which was enough)
a white vinyl leather material
cotton batting
Total cost was around £3-5 because I didn't need a lot, a lot cheaper than I was expecting.
To make the tongue, I had plans of filling it with cotton batting to make it a little sturdier but all the while slim enough to make it easy to handle to create the folds later. My measurements were 3.5" wide by 22" long. Same for the cotton batting with a bit extra to make the top of the tongue thicker so that it holds better. Right sides of the pleather facing each other and the cotton batting pinned on the outside.
Then sewing close to the edge that is open:
Once done, I turned it inside out. It's really handy to have a bit of patience and a long ruler at this point to reach the corners and to make the edges as smooth as possible. I tried ironing it out a bit, even with a towel on top to avoid melting the pleather but it didn't work that well...
Afterwards, I took a needle and red threat and started to create the folds:
So quite simple but time consuming (took me about 2 hours the first go), just fold the tongue as tight as you can then thread it through so that it holds together. The trick to using the thread allows you to adjust the folds, whilst you're working on it and even once you're done, so you don't need to worry about hot-glueing it wrong (and melting it) or messing up. Plus, you can always snip it and redo places you're not too keen on.
Do another row of thread in the middle so it keeps the folds quite tight:
Then lastly, on the remaining side:
And there it is! Once folded, the final length of the tongue should be about 10" (I worked this out from the pre-existing tongue length, and judging from the screen caps the distance between the second velcro strap and the size of the Reebok label and came to the conclusion that the overall tongue length is about 10" for the 9" height Alien Stompers).
And this is what it roughly looks like on the shoe!
Not too shabby, I'm pretty chuffed that my idea worked. The tongue is a bit floppy but then again, it'll be sitting against my leg and held with the velcro, so I'm not too worried. Now to attach it on the shoe to see what it looks like. This part was pretty tough because it was quite awkward sewing it to the shoe, not to mention very very difficult to penetrate. I ended up only doing enough of the front row (as pictured where my needle sits) and couldn't get any more coverage but it seems to be enough. I just made sure to do as many loops as I could in those few holes. I'm contemplating hot-glueing but again, I worry about melting it and placing it wrong. I think I'll just stick to this for now. It took me a good hour or so getting it on.
So that's the first tongue done! Now onto the second one in the next post!
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