Wednesday, February 05, 2014

S.O.S. (Save Our Shoes) #2

Anyone here ever continue to wear a pair of shoes even after their condition can reasonably be termed "disgraceful"? Good. I'm glad I'm not the only one.

beforeI even wore them with my refashion from last month.

About a week ago I was wearing one such pair of disgraceful shoes while hanging out with a friend. I joked about how I've been putting off buying new dress boots for almost a year now, and that I'd been filling in the cracked a peeling heels with a marker.

My friend's audible sigh let me know that I had out-cheaped myself this time. It was time to do something about those boots that didn't involve a Sharpie. So last weekend I got to work...

What You'll Need:


1 pair of shoes with aging, stained, cracked, or peeling heels
acrylic paint (Cheapy craft paint will work fine this time, but nicer paint will look nicer and last longer.)
paint brushes (A thin one for detail and a wider one for everything else.)
pencil (optional)
paper towel

How To:


1) Gather your supplies. When picking your paint, choose whatever color(s) you want. Like I said in my previous shoe update tutorial, be creative. Try different colors and finishes (matte, shiny, etc.) Maybe pick a color scheme used by your favorite artist or designer, or try to copy a design you've seen somewhere else.

IMG_5616bThis is what you see in the dictionary under "disgraceful".
(I'd already started on step 2 when this photo was taken.)

2) Clean off the heels of the shoes as best you can, and peel off the old finish. (The finish on my shoes peeled off easily, but they were in pretty bad shape already.)

IMG_5617bGot to love those old Sharpie lines.

3) Paint the heel of your shoe with the color of your choice. This may take more than one coat of paint.

1

4) Using the pencil, draw your chosen design(s) onto each heels. You can also skip this step and freehand whatever design you want.

IMG_5624b

5) Paint your design onto the heels. Smaller brushes work best for details. I found some gold craft paint in the back of the closet for the stripe and the inside of the heel.

after

6) Wear your saved shoes! Now your friends won't be embarrassed to be seen in public with you. ;)

- Elizabeth
aka The Hungry Octopus
Now blogging at www.TheHungryOctopus.com!

4 comments:

Andrea said...

Seriously?!? I LOVE how these came out! The gold is so perfect and now I want to do this to a pair of black boots I have(though the heels are NOT disgraceful...yet) ;)

Amy Jo said...

That looks great! Awesome salvage job on the boots. I'm wondering if you sealed the new paint job with mod podge or some kind of clear coat so that it stays put in wet weather?

Unknown said...

I haven't sealed them, but I should. Great idea!

- Elizabeth
aka The Hungry Octopus

Jennifer Elliott said...

Such an easy and stylish fix! Brilliant!