Vinyl Boot Alteration (I love Halloween!)

Why, you ask? Why in the world would Dawn be altering boots? Can one do that with a sewing machine?? Yes, my friends, you can. You just need a leather needle, a rolling foot, tear-away stabilizer, vinyl boots, and a load of patience. See these boots? My husband gave them to me as a gag gift a few years ago. Yes, they have killer 6" heels. And actually, they are pretty comfortable to wear. I have a costume to show you tomorrow. It goes with the red boots. Tonight, though I thought I would show you the alteration of the boots. First, I cut them off two inches above the knee (I want them to be knee-high boots).

Then, I unpicked the stitches that held the vinyl to the zipper. I also removed the zipper stops and repositioned them at the new "top" of the zipper. All you need for that is some needle-nosed pliers. See the underflap? That is a thicker piece of vinyl that I shaped easily with my scissors. Then I just folded under the vinyl and used a zigzag stitch to "hem" the boots.

I used a 110 leather needle with my leather rolling foot. I also sandwiched tear-away stabilizer between the vinyl and the machine bed so it wouldn't grab.

Even with all that, it is hard to get even stitches. All of the stitches shown below are of the same stitch length. When they are closer together the vinyl was getting bound up. When I grabbed it and started pulling, the stitches got farther apart. This is my test sample.

Here's the back showing the stabilizer.

I'll show the finished boots tomorrow along with the dress that goes with it. Here's a sneak peek. Anyone? Anyone? It's a Burda pattern and it's only a few months old.