How to Make Dorothy's Ruby Red Slippers

Want to click those ruby red heels together and recite lines from the classic story? Well, once you learn how to make Dorothy's Ruby Red Slippers, you can!

Steps

1. Clean the shoes that you are going to use. Avoid using new shoes.
2. Lay out old newspaper outside or in a well-ventilated place and place shoes on it.
3. Paint shoes with red paint. If using spray paint, follow directions on label and read the warnings, if using acrylics, make sure you have sufficient experience to guarantee evenness, if you don't, use spray paint.
4. Try for two even coats. Try to buy red shoes straight up, this will avoid the 'home-made/cheap' look, and cut down the time and effort required.
5. Leave shoes to dry in well-ventilated area for 1-2 days, to make sure that when gluing on sequins the paint will not come off. (the purpose of this is so the natural color of the shoe will not come through the gaps between the sequins)
6. Plug in the hot glue gun and wait for it to heat up. Glue guns work in a similar fashion to an electric stovetop, so it may take awhile (1-2 min) for the wires in the glue gun to heat up enough to melt the glue.
7. Lay out large red sequins.
8. Glue on sequins one at a time with a small dab of hot glue, place them as close together as possible, but don't shove them together (this step will take a long time, so play some music or put on a movie, but not a very interesting one, otherwise you will get nothing done) You can also use spray glue in a can similar to hairspray, found in your local craft store, and any type of glitter. This method is a lot faster. Just spray and sprinkle glitter on shoes. Use newspaper so you can reuse excess glitter.
9. Let the shoes dry/cool for about 15 minutes.
10. Shake the shoes to see if any sequins are loose or coming off, if they are, replace them, only this time, use a little more glue.
11. Repeat steps 9 and 10 until no more sequins come off.
12. Wear with pride!

Tips

• Only paint the outside of the shoes, fill the inside with old newspaper so that paint will not go in.
• Only cover the top part of the shoe with sequins, leave the sole as is.
• If you want to be more accurate to the original story, use silver paint and silver sequins, since in Frank L Baum's original story, Dorothy's shoes were silver. They were changed to red in the film to provide a high contrast between the shoes and the Yellow Brick Road and most people now associate the shoes as red.
• This is not a child-friendly project, older children with a sufficient sense of responsibility could do this, but if you want a professional look, only let adults or teens make the shoes.
• If you need something quicker get a pair of red canvas shoes and put some red glitter on them.
• You can make bows by cutting out a bow shape and hot gluing bugle beads and rhinestones to it, or just more sequins and glitter. Cardboard that has been painted red is a good choice, or (if you can get it) leather that has been painted.

Warnings

• The fumes given off by paint (especially spray paint) can be toxic, point all aerosol cans away from people and animals, and always spray paint outside or in a well-ventilated place. (open any doors or windows and mobile fans are very useful if pointed towards open door or window)
• Hot glue from the gun is hot; try not to get any hot glue on bare skin, because it will blister, do not let small children use hot glue guns (there are cool glue guns that you can let them use, the glue is still hot and will hurt, but wont blister, usually.)

Things You'll Need

• Shoes-preferably heeled shoes, to be more accurate to the movie, but old sneakers are fine, especially for trick-or-treating.
• Red paint (spray paint gives a more even effect, and is much easier and faster to use, but pretty much any paint will do)
• Large red sequins (about 1 cm or 1/2 inch to 3cm of 1 inch across, you could use smaller ones, but you could also have other things to do with your time)
• Hot glue gun & hot glue sticks.
• Old newspaper
• Optional (if you cant find some items listed above)
• Clear, sparkly sequins
• A strong, fast-drying glue that dries clear
• Cleaning material
• Paintbrushes and water to clean the paintbrushes

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Make Dorothy's Ruby Red Slippers. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

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