Create: Vocaloid Luka Megurine Boots

Hi everyone! Today I will be showing you how to turn leather boots you buy from the thrift store and customize them for a costume. Specifically, I will be showing how to make boots for Vocaloid Megurine Luka.

•          Boots
•          Paint
•          Fabric medium
•          Acetone
•          Cotton balls or cotton pads
•          Gloves
•          Eyelets and grommet
•          Scissors

I absolutely love making props and working on costumes, and I hope you will too! Now that we have covered what you will need let’s start going through the steps. Without further ado, let’s get started!

Step One: Stripping the shoe finish

The first step to personalizing your boots is to remove the previous finish on them. This will only work on leather shoes that have a coating on them. This part will take some time and will require using acetone so either divide this section into different days or have some good ventilation to keep from getting dizzy or feeling nauseous. Stripping the boots is very simple, but it will take time. Take a cotton ball and saturate it in acetone. Take the soaked cotton ball and begin to rub the finish off the boots. This will give you a better base to paint the boots later. The reason being that the finish makes the boots very smooth, by removing the finish the paint can better adhere to the boots. Do not soak more than one cotton ball at once unless you plan on storing them. Acetone can dry quickly so if they do not soak in the acetone you do risk the acetone evaporating. You will want to wear gloves as well to protect your hands.

Step Two: Personalizing the boots

This is the time where you will want to add any cosmetic changes that will go under the paint. The boots that I am making require laces, so I cut a tongue into my shoes then added eyelets using a grommet. To do this, I first traced the design and measured where the eyelets would need to go. After figuring out where I needed to alter the boots, I did so. After this, it is time to start painting

Step Three: Painting on the color

The boots that I am making are gold, so I decided to use multiple coats of gold acrylic paint to give my boots the proper color. You won’t want to use the acrylic paint alone because it will not stick as well. To make the paint stick better, you will want to mix in some fabric medium.

The ratio that you will want to use is 1-part fabric medium with 2-parts acrylic paint. After your mixture is made, paint it onto the fabric of your boot. I did two coats, then used some PVC tubing I had laying around to make sure that the tongue of the shoe does not fall into the shoe. Paper towel tubes or dowels would also work.

After that, you are done! Just add your finishing touches and your boots are ready to go. Thanks for reading! I hope this tutorial was helpful. If you have any questions or comments, please let me know below. Once again, thanks for reading!