DIY: Ankle Strap Wedges

I've been seeing ankle strap wedges all over the blogosphere. Even though it goes against years of the advice, "don't wear shoes with ankle straps, it cuts off your legs and makes you look shorter!!" I still absolutely love the shape (and secretly think it makes your legs look longer).

And so when I was looking for shoes for my college's end of the year formal, this image suddenly popped into my head.

Matiko ankle strap wedges on the left, my Target wedge booties on the right - do you see what I see??

I've had these Target wedge booties since January but only ever worn them once. They're super comfy and super cute, but their color (a weird olive/beige/brown) just never seems to match with anything. After some paint and a hack job, here's what I came up with:

What you need:

Wedge booties you don't mind cutting up

Scissors (or x-acto knife)

Chalk or marker

Paint (depending on what type of fabric your shoes are made of, or whether you even want to change the color)

What you do:

1) Try shoes on and mark where you want to cut them down. (Note: these pictures were taken after one coat of black paint, so the color looks a little weird)

2) Take a deep breath and hack into the shoes. Carefully.

One down, one to go!

3) Paint shoes.

4) Apply a small amount of fabric glue to the edges that you just cut to make sure the cut part doesn't fray or wear away. If you don't have glue that will dry clear, do this before you paint your shoes. Otherwise, you're done!

 And a sneak preview of my Operation Stunna Cum Laude post coming later today!