Kindred soles

Resurrect your shoes from drab to fab!

There’s something about an overly loved pair of shoes that is so hard to discard. Raggedy, stained, past-their-prime footwear hidden in the back of the closet – we’ve all got them! But no need to fret, I’m going to show you how to breathe new life into those old soles (like my play on words, huh, huh? lol) with the help of a little fabric paint. Check it out!

What you will need:

• A pair of old fabric shoes (this tutorial is for canvas shoes only. For other fabrics, an acrylic gloss paint would probably work better, and you can find shoe polish and leather stain out there as well)
• Acrylic paint
• Textile medium
• Paint brushes and/or sponge
• And in my case, about 2 yrds of fabric or ribbon

Bonus: lay down newspaper to avoid messy situations!

Step One:

Begin by cleaning your shoes as much as possible. My methods of choice are either tossing them in the washer or using a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

Step Two:

Choose a base coat! I decided to go with this pretty graphite grey I found by Artist’s Loft paints.

I'm beginning to appreciate the sophistication of grey

Step Three:

Mix your paint with textile medium: a creamy paint-like substance that will turn any acrylic paint into fabric paint. It’s a lot more affordable than buying pre-made fabric paints, and it will last you forever. The bottle instructions say to mix 1 part medium to 2 parts paint, but I do 50:50 because it allows me to use up less paint yet still maintain the same color.

I use Delta Ceramcoat textile medium for all my fabric painting

Step Five:

Use a sponge to paint your base color directly onto the fabric. Depending on the original shoe color, you may need to use a few coats. Let it dry for a few hours.

Wondering what's beneath the black boxes? You don't want to know...

Step Six:

Once the paint has dried, you can begin painting patterns, pictures, words, etc. with additional textile medium infused paint! Inspired by a pair of GAP shoes, I went with a delicate flower pattern in purple and yellow.

Try using stamps if you doubt your artistic ability

Step Seven:

For these espadrilles, I created new laces by cutting out strips of cotton jersey. I painted and patterned each strip following the same steps as the shoes.

Each lace is roughly a yard long

Step Eight:

Once everything dried, I used pliers to help me re-lace my shoes. It was a bit tough pulling through such thick laces, and I recommend next time using fabric dye because the paint caused them to stiffen a bit. After that, you’re done!

Duh dah dahhh! Brand "new" shoes

I'm in love with the thicker laces

two stepping

Tomorrow, I’ll post an outfit with these bad boys. The frugal Asian in me is so ecstatic right now that I found a way to make my shoes last, lol. Not to mention this is a great way to appease your green living needs!

Are you a shoe “hoarder”? Do you have a hard time letting them go? What ways do you make them last? Let me know!

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