Leather shoe surgery part 2: blingy flats!

Gaining confidence from my first shoe refashion last week, I took a new look at the underworn shoes in my closet.

The Raw Material: a pretty pair of thrifted leather flats with cute hardware.
Diagnosis: so tight in across the top of the foot and in the toe box that I never left the house in them :(
Revelatory Insight: it doesn't make sense to buy or own shoes that hurt my feet.
Enter: the serrated paring knife.

Plan of treatment: cut away parts of the shoe until I had either totally destroyed every shoe-like feature, or I had converted them into cute (and comfortable) flats a la fanciness like this:

Starting with the originally adorable (but unsustainably painful) shoe, I cut out the leather inside the little horseshoe.  I worked hard to make my cuts under the hardware, so they'd be as unnoticeable as possible.   They were very cute at this point, but after an hour of wear I had to admit they were still squeezing my toes too much.  ====> MORE CUTTING!

To remove the pinching toe box, I cut as close to the decorative trim as possible (controlling the paring knife was easier this time).  Since the entire interior sole of the shoe was really nicely finished, they look pretty legit (there was a white cardboard layer right under the leather, like with the men's shoes last time, but I just colored it black with a pen...you can see it as the second layer in).

On the feet:

I do wish I could have kept them with the toe box since the first alteration did help with the tightness across the top of the foot, but now they are actually wearable (and summery!), and I still like them fairly well, so I'll call myself satisfied.