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Friday, November 25, 2011

I Made a Skirt!

Black leather skirt

Three weeks ago, I rediscovered a pair of black Aerosole loafers. The shoes had been in the back of my closet for several years stored in their original box.  I was in search of  brown shoes to wear with a brown pants suit to my niece's sweet sixteen dinner party when the shoe reconnection occurred.  I wondered why I had not worn these super comfortable shoes more than once or twice.

The week following the dinner party, where I was honored to be one of my niece's 16 special people, I decided to wear the Aerosoles on my Saturday morning errands.  Dressed and ready to leave, I admired how cute I looked in my tie-dyed and wooden bead-embellished top, layered over a long-sleeved contrasting knit shirt, a pair of denim jeans, and my comfortable black Aerosoles.  I was pleased with the comfort and the appearance of the shoes, which looked like boots underneath the flared legs of my jeans.

The fact that I had on shoes and not flip-flops or sneakers prompted my son's question, "Where are you going so dressed up?" After answering his question and informing the other man with whom I reside where I was going, one of the soles of the shoes felt a little strange as I walked to the back door, but I went on my journey anyway without looking down.

At my second stop, the post office to mail a Santa that sold on eBay, I discovered the problem.  The soles of both shoes, made from a black foam-type material, were c-r-u-m-b-l-i-n-g away!  There I was thinking I looked cute, and I was literally walking out of my shoes and leaving an obvious trail of crumbs behind me.  "Thank God this post office is not busy," I thought, as I stood alone in line waiting for the one customer ahead of me to be served.  I nervously and frequently looked back,  hoping no one else would arrive until after I left.  My turn, I handed the clerk the prepaid package before ambling slowly back to the car to avoid leaving a larger-than-necessary visible track (I had already left one upon entering).  Inside the car, I took the shoes off, examined them, shook my head in disgust, and immediately drove home to change shoes before completing the rest of my errands.

Adéle Makeda wears her new black leather skirt well.

Later that day, since the top leather portion of the shoes was still in like-new condition, I decided to cut it away from the soles of both shoes for repurposing.  The result is the black skirt worn by Adéle Makeda, shown above.  The front  of the skirt has a criss-cross closure held with black sticky back Velcro; so no sewing was required. 

Plans were in order to redress Adéle (see her here in her original fashion), but I never expected to do it like this.

dbg

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8 comments:

  1. You always seem to elicit tears from me. These tears were from me laughing so incredibly hard. Why was I laughing so hard? Because the same thing happened to me a couple of months ago. The shoes had literally dry rotted in my closet. I was so ticked because they had never been worn. So I understand the whole crumb leaving thing. Things like this tend to happen when we go out of our way to look exceptionally cute. Sounds like you were looking pretty fly. I love the skirt. It's perfect for Adele.

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  2. I had to laugh at myself after this happened, but I was pretty ticked off, too, because I know I only wore those shoes twice, at the most. Glad I could make you laugh this morning.

    dbg

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  3. Very funny story and neat skirt design. Hope you had a happy holiday!

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  4. Funny story. Interestingly this happened to me as well. My shoes were fushia/pink suede flat loafer type shoes. I adored them but due to the color, I didn't get get much wear out of them. I went to lunch with a dear friend that I had not seen in a long while. As we chatted away I just so happen to look down. I saw the crumbles under the table and thought somebody had not done a good job at vacuuming. Long story short, when I got up to leave my entire sole was on the floor. I had to walk out bear feet. I was totally humiliated because I also went the extra mile to be cute especially since I had not seen my friend in a while. So embarrassing....now I can laugh.

    Happy Saturday to you!

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  5. Oh, I love the skirt. I threw mine away in route to walking to my car.

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  6. Limbe Dolls - Thanks for the comment on the skirt. Yes, my holiday was good. Hope yours was, too.

    Your story is too funny Georgia Girl. It's good that we can laugh about our experiences now.

    Thanks for the compliment on the skirt.

    dbg

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  7. Very creative Debbie! And your story had me LOL!!

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  8. I know this is a very old thread by now, but I felt I had to comment, however silly of me that it is. This dry-rot on new shoes thing happened to me with a pair of lovely Clarks Artisan step-in sandals I purchased at a resale store. They looked "like new". But they disintegrated and crumbled away from the sole the first time I wore them...sudden fwap, fwap down the hall to the elevator. I saved the leather tops for future doll projects too. I also had an older pair of perfect black Aerosole suede oxfords (never worn) that I had stored away, unscratched, unmarked, for the right occasion. The lining and any non-leather parts dry-rotted away the first time I wore them with my elegant black trouser look. Uh huh...so much for stockpiling size 11 and 12 shoes in multiple colors for the future! Not worth it...luckily I have Ebay now, and it is easier to find size 11s and 12s reliably, although you still don't know how old they are. (The Aerosoles were purchased on the ShopGoodwill.com site.)

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