DIY Marc Fisher Shearling-Lined Boots
Leave it to Christian Girl Autumn meme superstar Caitlin Covington to totally master Fall style - this is really her time to shine, and she did not disappoint this year. Most of her outfits so far have centered around an extremely covetable, super cozy-looking pair of shearling-lined Marc Fisher Izzie boots that she pairs with chunky socks for the ultimate effortlessly gorgeous, PSL-swigging Fall Girl lewk.
Needless to say, I want them. They were a bit pricy at just under $250, and (probably thanks to Caitlin Covington’s many Insta posts) frequently sold out, restocked, and sold out again, but I kept thinking about them. Marc Fisher had a 25% off site-wide deal a while back, and will probably have another one as we get closer to the holiday shopping season, which brought them down to $187, but I still hesitated.
Here’s Caitlin looking v cute in the Izzie boots on her blog Southern Curls and Pearls:
I did lots of googling and found some similar styles like this Made In Italy Suede Shearling Lined Boot at TJMaxx, and there was a really convincing dupe at Walmart, but I was really worried about quality. The Marc Fisher boots just looked luxe even through the screen, and I didn’t want to settle with something cheaply and possibly unethically made.
I lucked out and found a pair of really similar boots, the Marc Fisher Lansley Boot, on Ebay - new, unworn and in the box - for around $40 including shipping. They weren’t exactly the same - they have a small heel, and while they do have shearling on the sides, there isn’t a plush waterfall of fluff cascading down the front like the Izzie boot.
Nothing a little DIY can’t fix, though, right? I ordered a yard of White Sherpa Fleece Fabric from Hobby Lobby - I needed what really amounts to a 12'“ x 3” strip, but it’s sold by the yard, and now I have PLENTY for more DIYs! It cost around $14 with shipping, so my total cost for this project was $54 - a savings of almost $200 off the original price of the Izzie! (That’s enough for a roundtrip flight from Philadelphia to Florida, just saying!)
You’ll need:
A sharp scissors
Newsprint paper to cover your work surface and to cut out a template
A pen that will write on paper and on the back of the fabric
Glue - Gorilla Glue worked great.
Fabric - Shearling is best, but faux fur would work great too!
Time from start to finish: Under 15 minutes.
Here are the Marc Fisher Lansley boots, pre-DIY.
I bought them “New With Box” from Ebay, but I did wear them a few times before starting the DIY. They already had some shearling trim on them, but they didn’t have that super-plush shearling that Caitlin’s have, which is what I’m DIY-ing here.
Step 1.) Remove the laces and prep the boots for surgery
(This is a pretty obvious step….)
Step 2: Make a template of the “tongue” with paper
Trace the tongue on newsprint paper or printer paper. If you can’t get it loose enough to lay it flat to trace it onto paper, measure the length and width and then freehand it based on the measurements. Add an inch or so to the top so you can wrap the shearling around the top of the tongue to give it a more plush look, like the Marc Fisher Izzie boots.
Don’t stress too much about getting an uber-precise measurement. Shearling is very forgiving, so you don’t need a perfectly straight line or a perfectly clean cut, which is great - I’m somewhere between a novice and a mid-level DIY-er, so I love being able to freehand.
My dad, who is a really skilled knife-maker (check him out at JDWareKnives.com) always taught me “cut once measure twice”. (I’m pretty sure all dads say this, but mine is special.) In that spirit, once I cut the mock-up template from newsprint paper, I put it in place where the actual shearling would go to make sure it would fit and to make sure I liked it visually. I also used this step to decide where I wanted to place the fabric - how high up, and so forth.
Step 3: Cut the shearling.
Cut two “tongues” using the template. I bought the fabric from Hobby Lobby, and they sell it by the yard. I have basically the whole yard minus two boots’ worth of trim leftover for more DIYs. If you are super enterprising, you could reuse some old shearling - a thrifted vest or an old shearling rug. I wanted something snowy white to match the newness of the boots, though. If I was working on a perfectly-worn pair, I might have opted for vintage shearling instead.
Step 4: Glue it to it
I was between a glue gun and this kids Gorilla Glue, but in the end I opted for the Gorilla Glue because I was worried that the heat of the glue gun would damage the fabric or the boots. A more skilled DIY-er could probably sew this on, but that seemed a little over complicated.
I took this step really seriously, because I knew this was the “No Going Back” point - once that glue touched the suede, that would be it.
I knew that even if the glue wasn’t the strongest (spoiler alert - it’s pretty strong, in true Gorilla Glue fashion), the laces would definitely help hold it in place, so I wasn’t really worried about that. I did do a glue test beforehand by gluing a scrap of shearling to itself to make sure that the glue adhered fabric to fabric. It did.
Add the glue to the back of the fabric, not to the actual shoe itself - this will give you more control. Don’t use too much or it’ll drip.
I placed it very carefully onto the boot, making sure to be extra careful not to let the glue drip! If you’re in doubt, place it a little higher than you think you want it, and slide it down - doing it the opposite way, sliding it up, will leave a trail of dried glue on the finished boot.
Once I placed it, I tied the laces to hold it in place, but not tight enough to squeeze the glue out over the edges. The last step is to fold the top over and press it down (don’t forget to glue up there so it stay down.)
That’s it!! You’re done.
Resist the urge to wear them right away - let the glue dry overnight.
