Makeover Monday - Shoes

I'm going to re-post the Jacket to jumper project when I get a chance to trim down the final post - Blogger seems to hate it right now and nothing is coming out in the right way. Text and picture soup.


In the meantime here's another project. A nice simple one. I'm going to makeover some shoes. Well, give them a second life anyway. The reasons for trying to make them over are twofold. First, I'm broke. Second, I've done something to my left Achilles tendon and can't wear heels at the moment.

I've been wearing my other trainers - the ones I wear hiking and climbing.  They're okay, but they really don't go with skirts. A nice pair of 'converse' is exactly what I need. Except that mine currently look like this:

 I've had them for about five years, but haven't worn them in at least two. Why-ever not, I hear you ask. Did you look at the picture? My office job has a fairly flexible dress code, but there is no way I could get away with wearing these as they are. They are filthy bordering on thrashed!* In the state they are in, I'll never wear them, but I've moved twice with them so part of me clearly doesn't want to throw them out.

For this makeover you will need:


1 pair of dirty converse look-alikes
1 toothbrush
1 bottle of thick bleach
1 mug
1 facecloth you don't care too much about
2 permanent black markers
1 pair of shoelaces
** if your shoes are not black you will also need a permanent marker the same colour as your shoes.


So -first step. Get rid of the old laces. You can try to wash them, but honestly it's a waste of time. they don't really come clean. So toss 'em.


Second Step: Break out the cleansers. I tried several - flash and cif showed some progress, but it wasn't as fast as good old bleach. Pour a small amount of the bleach into the mug - less than 1cm deep. Dip the toothbrush in the bleach and start scrubbing!*

Be careful not to get any of the bleach on the fabric of the shoe. You will wind up with a few tiny spots; if you get the rubber really clean I guarantee it - just try to get as little as possible on them. 

Scrub in small circles. Wipe the foam that builds up away with a dry facecloth occasionally. Depending on how dirty the shoes are, the scrubbing may take only a few minutes or it could take 20. My shoes we at the latter end of the spectrum. Clean the toe caps first and work your way around the sides. 

That isn't a reflection from the flash - the side of the toe really is so clean you can't see the pattern! :)

Third step: Once the shoes are clean wash out the facecloth and use the wet cloth to give the shoes a wipe and make sure that all of the bleach is off. It doesn't hurt to repeat this step a few times to be absolutely sure. If you can see where you got bleach on the fabric, give those areas a few dabs with the wet cloth to rinse them. It is not necessary to soak the shoes though.

Fourth Step: Time to examine the damage. The fabric and the soles of the shoes are fine, but the rubber is cracked in a few places, especially where my toes bend along the edges of the toe cap. There is nothing you can do about this - not in this Makeover anyway. But you can do something about the surface appearance so that the other damage is less noticeable. 

My shoes have had most of the black markings worn away.  I debated using a gold marker to fill these in and giving them some individuality, but there was enough black along the sides that I decided to just stick with the original colour scheme. With a permanent marker start filling in the worn out areas.

The black line was totally worn away over the toe. I've filled half in again.

 
For the markings on the side, it might be a good idea to give yourself some guidelines. Draw the top and bottom of the line in and then just fill in the blank area.

Fifth Step: Once all of the black markings are drawn back on, set the shoes aside for 24 hours or so to make sure that they are really, really dry. I didn't leave enough time and had to scrub black marks off the toes again because I'd smudged everything. You also need to make sure that the fabric of the shoe has time to dry if you got it wet when cleaning off the bleach.


Sixth Step: When you are sure that the shoes are totally dry, check them over for any areas on the cloth part of the shoe that you might have bleached. Use the marker that is the same colour as the shoe to re-colour any bleached spots.

Finally, put in your nice new pair of laces.

Which one would you wear to work?

One thing to mention - I made sure that the marker I used will be rainproof by making a small mark on the side and trying to wash it off using just tap water. I needed to check three or four of the markers in the house before I found one that worked. If you live in an area known for the moisture content of the air, like oh, say London or Vancouver, you will want to do this as well. 

In addition, writing with marker on rubber can be difficult depending on the pen. It is useful to have a sheet of paper nearby to occasionally scribble the pen back to life. Using less pressure on the pen also helps.

And there you go: an old pair of shoes that look like a reasonably new pair of shoes. And all I bought was a new pair of laces. My tendons are already thanking me!

I admit that this was a bit of a cheat, but I'm trying to ease my way back into posting and this was a nice simple project that really needed to be done. I plan on making Makeover Monday a regular thing. If you have a suggestion or a request, drop a comment in one of the Monday posts and I'll see what I can do. 

*They only cost me £20 so I was never concerned enough about them to keep them nice. 


*I have to admit, this was my favourite part. And yes I do have spare toothbrushes just for things like scrubbing grout and shoes. Doesn't everyone? Why are you looking at me like that?