Making your shoes match your costume is a part of cosplay that some dread. Do you get specific shoes for each costume? Do you dye an existing pair? Do you decide to forget making the footwear part of the costume? We’ve covered some shoe cover techniques before from Kamui Cosplay, and now it’s time to look at a method from Kenkaya Cosplay. Hers isn’t about making armor, but instead making a pair of flats match the color of her Beauty and the Beast Belle costume.

She started by patterning one of the shoes. To do this, she used an existing pair of flats and covered with foil first and then duct tape. She cut that pattern apart carefully to make paper templates, which she then transferred to fabric that she saved when making her Belle dress. She explains:

– Pin the fabric pieces (right side to right side of fabric) and sew them together. If you have multiple pieces, I recommend adding notches or pencil marks to remind you which seams match on each piece. There’s nothing more frustrating than realizing you’ve sewn a seam wrong after the fact!
– Serge, zigzag stitch, or fray check any unfinished seams. My fabric wasn’t prone to fraying, so I only zigzag stitched the back seam for extra durability and fray checked the rest. If sewing by hand, a blanket stitch can be used in lieu of a zigzag stitch or serger.

Read more on Tumblr.