Tutorial: Simple Bootcovers

When I say simple bootcovers, I mean just that. These are no fuss, no muss bootcovers. These are the bootcovers we used for our Last Chance Myu Santa Senshi costumes

Now, there are a few ways to do this, but we really did use more of a cheater’s method. If were were competing, we wouldn’t do it this way. We’d make real, stand up bootcovers. (And when we do, we’ll make another tutorial.)

First, take a pair of boots. (Sorry about the lack of “real” pictures. We forgot to take pictures all 5 times we did this…)

Then take some fabric, fold it in half, and lay the boots on top of it. From there, get some chalk and trace around the boots, leaving about a 1 inch seam allowance. If the fabric is stretchy, make sure that you have the stretch go from left to right, not up and down. Stop at the toe and the heel, as you don’t need to worry about the bottom of the shoe.

Repeat for the other boot, then cut out the fabric. From there, sew the front and the back sides together.

Next, turn it right-side out and slide over your boot. Make sure it’s nice and snug. If it is, pin the top part to the top of the boot to hold it in place, then grab your pins and start pinning the fabric on the bottom part of the boot.

When you look at the boot, you’ll see a nice indentation where the sole of the boot meets the fabric part of the boot. That is where you want your fabric to end, so shove the fabric in there and pin it.

Now here’s the part that makes me cringe, but it works. Grab your handy-dandy hot glue gun and plug it in. Once it’s hot, pull out one of the pins from the sole of the boot and carefully glue the fabric into that crevace between the boot and the fabric. Do not glue the fabric to the sole of your shoe. Not only will it eventually scuff off, but you’ll probably fall and break your neck in the meantime.

In any event, carefully pull the pins and glue into the crevace. When you get to the arch of the boot, you’ll want to cut a bit of the fabric so you can get in there. I usually end up cutting out a triangle. For the heel, put a stripe of hot glue on the heel itself and press the fabric to secure. If it is a chunky heel, you can trim the excess fabric. If it is a narrow heel, I recommend folding a bit on to the heel, gluing it down, then repeating with the other fabric.

Once you’ve secured the fabric to the sole of the shoe, it’s time to move on. Now it’s time to cut a hole for the zipper. Simply cut a straight line where the zipper is. I recommend taking some chalk, pinning the fabric in place, chalking the zipper line in and then cutting it.

From there, hot glue the fabric to the outside edges of the zipper, being VERY careful not to get any glue in your zipper.

You are almost done! You probably don’t have fur on top like we do, so at this point, simply fold over the excess fabric and sew along the top edge of the boot. Remember you have pins up there, so don’t forget to take those out.

Then, voila! You are done! Enjoy!