Finally...

It's taken nearly two and a half years, but at last my Ellie shoes have gone from this...

 to this...

Most excited to have finally finished them.  I think I made just about every mistake and broke every rule getting the soles and heels on these, due to a combination of being out of practise, laziness and lack of necessary equipment/patience.  In some ways I'm very glad I did - it has been a while since I've soled any shoes so it was a great refresher course in what NOT to do.

And to be honest they've been sitting around so long I'd lost some of the love for them, so they were a good pair to get back into the zone with.  It has been so long that when I took them off the lasts I was pleasantly surprised to see I'd padded the insole, which I have no memory of doing (baby brain strikes again)... extra comfort factor is always welcome!

But now they're done, polished up beautifully and oh-so-pretty, I'm sure they'll get lots of wear, as long as I don't look at the soles too closely.  I'd love to get some ribbons to lace them too... those shoelaces are pretty ordinary.

One more thing to cross off the never-ending 'to do' list... woop!

Oh, and tappy ladies, a version of these might be amongst my tap shoe designs, which are due to be released in March 2012.  Happy days...

Playing along with the creative peeps.