Having lived in Dubai for 5 years I am very familiar with the Arabic motif of the “evil eye” which is believed to ward off bad luck and intentions. The iconic symbol has now made its way onto rings, bags and shoes in mainstream fashion. These shoes are inspired by superblogger-turned designer Chiara Ferragni’s glittered winking eye ballet flats which cost Singapore $325. The eye motif we are making can be used on bags, cards, shirts, stationary and more, you just need to change up the gluing process. You can either freehand the project like I did or print an image of the shoes off the net to an A4 size and trace around.
What you will need:
Pleather fabric in blue, black and white (I got mine from Spotlight) $30
Sharp scissors
Glue gun
Glitter ballet flats (by Charles and Keith) $45
Permanent black marker
Optional: Double sided tape
Trace around the tip of the shoes to give you an idea of what size you’ll be working with.
Use your marker to free hand the shape of an eye on the white pleather fabric. This will be something like a semi-circle/almond shape. Leave some excess above the eye shape, this is where the eyelash will attach.
Cut around.
Use a cotton bud in nail polish remover to erase any stubborn fabric pencil marks
On the wrong side of the black pleather fabric face the white eye you have created right side down (this means the right side of the white eye will be the side touching the wrong side of the black pleather). Trace around the top of the eye to get the length of your lashes. Cut around it.
On the blue pleather trace a circle for the centre of the eye and cut around the eye ball. Using the black permanent marker colour the pupil black onto the eye ball
Using the black permanent marker colour the pupil black onto the eye ball.
You can either use the glue gun to permanently adhere your eyes to your shoes or if you just want to use the new design for a night out adhere them with double sided tape like I did and you can remove them easily later.
