I am slowly trying to clean out my wardrobe and get rid of things I don’t wear anymore. Before throwing any particular item out (or giving it away if it’s still in good condition), I’ll first questioning whether there’s anything I can to to alter or modify it to give it a new lease on life. For example, I’ve had these shoes for about 6 years, and despite looking quite good in the photos, the suede is rather faded and worn in a few patches. The bright suede with cork combo is pretty dated, too. (This is one of the reasons why I usually avoid buying overly trendy items these days.) Anyway, I’ve seen heaps of pictures online of people transforming old shoes with paint or fabric and Mod Podge, so I thought I’d give it a go.
There are a number of different tutorials online for this sort of DIY. I followed this one by the Diary of Dave’s Wife as I thought her method of making a pattern was particularly clever. It was a fun project, but to be honest I’m not all that good at gluey crafts – I tend to get in a big mess. I was constantly washing gloopy bits of half dried glue off my hands to prevent them messing up the smooth surface of the shoes.
It was a little bit fiddly around the straps, but it ended up working okay. I used an awl to re-open the holes in the strap and clipped the fabric around the buckle to make it sit neatly. I used a hobby knife around the base (as advised in the tutorial I followed) and just folded the fabric over the other edges of the shoe (such as around the peep toe). I clipped into the “seam allowance” of the fabric around the curved areas so it would sit flat when I folded it over the edges. This looks a little bit messy but you can’t see it once the shoes are being worn. You could probably cover these bits with ribbon if they were bothering you.
The end result looks quite good, but does feel quite stiff. If I was covering a solid area like the wedge heel in the tutorial, I think the results would be fantastic, but as it is, I’m in two minds about it. I can’t work out whether I’m happy with them or kind of regretting it. It’s not uncommon for me to feel like this about projects though – it’s the perfectionist in me. At the end of the day I can’t remember the last time I wore the shoes as they were so it’s no great loss if I continue to not wear them. I do love the print of the fabric combined with the cork though. Hmmm… I’m still not sure what I think. Do you ever feel like this with projects you make?
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Pretty much every single project.
These look fantastic. Girl, you’re just second guessing yourself.
Aww, thanks Amanda! You’re lovely!