During the now-rapidly-retreating summer, I decided that my several-years-old sandals were probably not going to last for much longer. Bits had started falling off them. And so began a hunt for a replacement pair of sandals. Much as I love shoes, I really dislike purposeful shoe-shopping, in which a specified pair of shoes must be obtained, and is thus completely absent from all retail outlets. The only kind of shoe-shopping I enjoy is accidentally-finding-an-amazing-pair-of-shoes, which had its own perils of Frivolity and Can My Bank Account Handle This Right Now, etc..

With this in mind, I decided to attempt Stealth Shoe Shopping. I was on the lookout for a specific pair of shoes, but pretending not to. You see?

It sort of worked. I found some practically new, not-exactly-what-I-was-looking-for-but-it-would-do sandals for £5 in a charity shop. The only issue was their inoffensiveness. They were practical, comfortable and not exactly frumpy, but they weren’t entirely thrilling:

So I decided to make them offensive.

I took a piece of fabric, sewed loads of buttons from my button collection and some beads from old, broken necklaces onto it, leaving some plain fabric around the edges – then I wrapped it around the main strap (over the toes), sewed it down and here is the result:

As a finishing touch, I sewed one button onto the ankle strap, too:

The whole shoe:

And then, of course, I had to do it all again to the other one…. (Although I think odd shoes may be in. The other day I saw a woman wearing one wellington and one turquoise pump.)