How to make simple Shoe Covers

In this entry I'm going to share with you guys how I made the shoe covers for my Millia Rage cosplay. 

Things you'll need 

• A pair of covered shoes/heels
• A pair of Thick socks
• A pair of Stockings/ Tights In the colour of the end product. If possible, get opaque/ thick ones.
• Scissors
• Tread & needle (if you’re making your own socks)

 

STEP 1: Make a Tabi lookalike sock

I didn't have any dispensable White stockings on hand but I have some stretchy white fabric which I bought from Philippines when I was there for FantasyQuest 2012, so I made myself a pair of socks. If you managed to find the perfect pair of coloured stocking/tights/socks you can skip this step.

To figure out how to make the ‘socks’, I first start by test and trialling with a pair of old sock. Using a covered pair of shoes would be much preferred .

I basically wore the pair of sock through the shoe and cut a small slit for the heel to go through. Go slow with this step and cut the slit slowly. You can always make the hole bigger but not the other way round.

I made sure I liked how everything looks then I take the sock out and used it as a pattern reference. 

The original sock with my draft.  I basically use it as a comparison to have an idea of where to curve and where the hole would be.

This is how the pattern of the socks looks like when it is laid flat on one side. It doesn’t look exactly like my reference sock but it fits best to the contours of my shoe. Feel free to change the draft according to your own shoe, this is not a fixed rule =)

I didn't want to have a line running through the middle of my shoes so I folded my fabric in half and sewed on the red dashed line.

And then you get a pair of Tabi-lookalike socks! Make a pair of them.

STEP 2: Slip the socks over your shoe

The next few steps are going to be a breeze. Just slip your newly made tabi socks over both your shoes and you're done !

My problem here was that my shoe was black and my tabi-lookalike socks were not thick enough to hide that completely. To solve that issue, I slipped another layer of thick cotton socks in between my Tabi-lookalike socks and Shoe. Problem solved !

In the above pictures, the cotton sock is seen being worn underneath my tabi-lookalike socks. As you can tell, the grooves/texture of the cotton socks showed through a little so if you can, avoid using deeply textured cotton socks underneath. Unfortunately for me, time was pinching and this pair of socks was all I could get which is why I used it =\.

And there you have it, a pair of super easy to make and use shoe cover. Granted that this method might not work for all footwear but it has got to be one of the easiest method around.

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In case my tutorial was not clear enough , go check out LolaInProgress's tutorial on using store bought stockings for Hatsune miku's shoe. In her example , she encouraged using a pair of heels in the same shade as your final product. As I didn't have a pair of white heels that was tall enough,  I used my homura Akemi black pumps. 

Like I explained above, instead of using 2 covers , I used a layer of thick store bought socks and a layer of custom made cover to both mask the original colour and smooth out the bumps in the shoe. 

  

This is the first time I tried making shoe cover with this sock technique and I'm surprisingly happy with the result. As you can see from the above WIP photos. I had originally tried to make fabric shoe covers like I usually would but I soon lost interest and looked towards a simpler ‘cheater’ method.

Have fun and good luck for your cosplay! If you’re keen to see the other Millia Rage cosplay photos of mine, click to read this entry!! Remember to leave me a comment and tell me what you think about this tutorial