5th July 2012: accessories This is the necklace and nail polish accesories I picked up cheap on the high street.

5th July 2012: cami suspender The sheer cami suspender was easy to make..basically like a boob tube. I took the shoulder straps off a bra and suspenders off a sbelt. The hard part was matching the scalloped elastic around the hem. In the end I cut off some knicker elastic from some donated knickers. Pic shows carefully removing the elastic.

5th July 2012: boots finished Finished boots with the buttons added. The soles should be painted red but I figured these are going to be re-used for other costumes so I left them.

3rd May 2012: boots after black shoe dye Boots after shoe dye. Nice and black. I am really pleased how they turned out. I did buy two packs of shoe dye as I thought one might not be enough since these boots are thigh length and the packaging says will cover a pair of shoes or small boots. But one pack was actually enough. The dye even dyed things like the zipper and elastic. Superb.

Method - I first cleaned off any polish from the grey boots by rubbing down with kitchen paper soked in gentle nail polish remover. Then as per the instructions I used the supplied abrasive sponge with warm water and lightly scrubbed all over. Left to dry. Then I decanted the shoe dye out of its plastic bottle into a glass jar so I could see how much was being used up, and because the plastic bottle looked like it could easliy tip over. The supplied application brush looked rough and stiff so I used one of my art brushes instead. The dye washed out of the brush with water. I def recommend this Dylon shoe dye, certainly changing to black worked fine.

If you are wondering what is stuffed inside the boots for the photo - I made myself these boot fillers a while back, they are usefull if you are trying to paint or dye long boots, they stop them from collapsing. Also can paint all over the boots without handling them - just hold them by the boot fillers. Made from long cardboard tube - empty wrapping paper tube - built out with scrunched newspaper and then wrapped in a layer of wall paper.

2nd May 2012: Boots - modifying Thes are my donor boots which I am going to try to mod to look like Madonnas Louboutines. First step is change them from grey to black. Here goes with the Dylon shoe dye..

6th April 2012: layers This is my sketch breakdown of the different layers in Madonnas costume - As far as I can make out she is wearing a bra top with hot pants, on top of that a sheer cami suspender, on top of that an underwired bra which looks latex or pvc and is halterneck with ring fixings.

26th March 2012: Black semi transparent fabric Fabric for the sheer cami suspender. It is beautifully soft net fabric and has 4 way stretch. (called Powermesh) I used it on my Chicago dress for Velma..so glad I kept the sellers details. ^^