London Underground Tube Map Shoes

Now you'll never get lost on the tube!

https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/london-underground-tube-map-shoes • Posted by Polly

I did an A Level art project on the London Underground and have been fascinated by the tube map ever since. I designed several items of clothing incorporating the tube map, and these shoes were one of the designs I made a reality.

You will need

Normal Fabric Paint in pale blue Plain black or white Plimsoll Shoes or similar casual shoes 3D Fabric Paint in brown, hot pink, pale pink, yellow, green. orange, grey, purple, black, dark blue, mid blue, pale blue and white Kitchen Roll / Paper Towels for cleaning up

Project Budget

Time

Difficulty

Description

I did an A Level art project on the London Underground and have been fascinated by the tube map ever since. I designed several items of clothing incorporating the tube map, and these shoes were one of the designs I made a reality.

Instructions

1. Get a cheap pair of plain plimsolls, try sales in shoes shops and schoolwear specialists. Make sure the plimsolls are clean otherwise the fabric paint won't adhere.

2. 

   Working from a tube map (pick one up at a tube station or print one off from www.tfl.gov.uk) work out which bits you will copy onto your plimsolls. You don't have to copy the whole map, choose bits which will fit well into the shape of different parts of the shoe.

3. 

   Start drawing out your map sections onto your plimsolls using coloured pencils. Match the colour of the pencil to the colour of the tube line you are copying. Do this for the whole shoe.

4. 

   Using the appropriate coloured 3D fabric paint, carefully paint over your drawn lines. You will need to wait for each section to dry before moving onto the next section, to avoid smudging. It usually takes a couple of hours to be touch dry. Do this for the whole shoe.

5. 

   Add in the stations. Do this by painting small white dots and then adding a black circle around the dot.

6. 

   If you have included the River Thames, you will need to paint this on using ordinary liquid fabric paint in a pale blue.

7. 

   Let everything dry, somewhere where the shoes won't get knocked or squashed. Then, ta-da! your shoes are finished! (Let these dry for 72 hours before you wear them outside in the rain or all the paint will wash off!)