Nara/Tang shoe experiment

[gurdymonkey]

Remember these? They're a pair of sengai in from the Shoso-in repository. The description in the back of Jodai-Gire: 7th and 8th Century Textiles In Japan from the Shoso-in and Horyu-ji indicate that these were definitely ladies slippers and very definitely meant for indoor wear, being made of ramie fabric and paper covered in silk. 

I, of course, would love to have some to go with the Nara outfit I'm working on. However, I'm going to have to wear them outdoors, so my version, of necessity, is going to have to be more costume-y than historic reconstruction.

Step 1. Cannibalize a pair of cheap, rubber soled flats from Target and glue recalcitrant Asian brocade to the upper. Curse frequently while getting hot glue all over fingers and bamboo skewer one while trying to stretch and manipulate fabric into place. Yes, I actually own a glue gun, remembered where it was and even had glue sticks in the same place.



If you look carefully, there's a scrap of this fabric on the ironing board behind the heel of the shoe which is extremely shiny and red when right-side-out. However, the back side is just as pretty, if not more so, and may be less likely to develop snags than the shiny side.

Next up, decorating the toes......

Comments

[eleryth.livejournal.com]

Looks great so far, even if you feel they're a bit costumey.

[mermaidlady]

Pretty! When I made my one and only set of Japanese garb, I used some fabric that was clearly roses on the right side, but the wrong side definitely had peonies.

[danabren.livejournal.com]

I like the design choice of using the wrong side of the fabric - it's a more elegant, less predictable color (although it's IMPOSSIBLE to go wrong with red!)

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I could've gone either way, but you know how this stuff snags - I'm hoping back-side-out wears better.

Both shoes are covered, hopefully I'll get the toe ornaments stitched, stuffed and attached tonight, unless James wants to meet up at fight practice.