Wednesday, January 7, 2009

REVAMPING SHOES

These days, with my amount of shoes, I can only justify getting new ones with two facts - 1) that they're either utterly practical for any occasion whatsoever or 2) that they are in a colour that I do not already have.

So I got these nice heels from ModCloth with the intention to make them darker, since they don't really qualify for the pradctical part and since I already have a pair in this colour but not in dark brown.

The heels before: (it's very hard taking pictures around here without getting a cat in them too :)


And the heels after (I also changed the ribbon since the original one was too thin to colour):



This was the first time I tried leather colour and the result turned out really nice! A friend of mine coloured a pair he found on a flea market red and I've been keen on trying it myself for quite some time now.

I used a spray on colour (there are also paint-ons available) and it attached fine to these shoes even thought they are not real leather. They anded up a lot shinier than they were before. I bought the colour form the cobblers (who is quite cute and real stylish by the way. His shop is in my house so I pop in there every now and then, heh :) and he recommended that I'd use some regular shoepolish in brown on these afterwards to make the reslut more lasting.

If anyone's keen on trying I have a few hints though that I noticed I should've followed myself:
-I wrapped my feet in plastic and sprayed the colour on while wearing the shoes to fill out the shoe properly and so that the inside wouldn't colour. I also covered the sole with some tape since I wanted it to stay in it's original light colour.
- it's good to wear the shoes in a bit before colouring. If you colour them brand new like I did the colour will cracle up when you wear them the first time. It happened to mine and it actually gave them a rather nice vintage-like touch but I wanted them in a solid colour so i just coloured them a second time and it turned out fine
-I guess this goes for all shoes out of man-made materials but don't wear them if it's -10C outside. The colour will cracle and you'll catch a cold...

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