FINISHED THE FEETSIES! The main toes are hot glued onto the shoes; you need to glue down each toe seperately starting with the middle toe so that everything is even and conforms to the shape of the shoe.
The hallaces I threaded 3 bits of craft wire through all layers of foam/glue/fabric strips (using a curved needle to poke a starting hole), and used these to literally tie them onto the shoe. My shoes had little holes in the fabric which I used to thread the wire through, then slathered the back of the hallax in hot glue before pressing it firmly to the shoe fabric. After the glue was dry, I twisted each wire pair, cut down to size, and glued flat against the inside with 2 layers of thick felt overlayed to protect my feet from being poked.
Another layer of felt just under the main toe lip/shoe margin, some dry brushed black paint over the glue edges & voila!