... and shoe hacks.
This post has been really hard to put together and research. There's just so much out there from cleaning your shoes to completely changing their style and colour. Hopefully there's some great stuff on here that you can use to modify your own shoes and personalize them to tell your story. Let's get started shall we?
Let's start things off with some alternative lacing techniques. You can find these everywhere online so I'll just run through a couple of my favourites, and then add a couple videos that have some more ideas.
If your laces aren't so long that after they are tied, they are still trying to drag on the ground, then you could do this to your own boots. Just loosen your laces enough that you can slide your boots on and off when you want to, but they aren't going to be slipping off when you try to walk. Then take each individual shoe lace, and tie a knot right where it meets the shoe to hold it in place.this eliminates the large bow string style of knot at the same time as accomplishing a more practical way of tying your boots. You wont have to be tying them and untying them so many times every use. you will hardly have to at all!!
My next favourite, super simple, alternative shoe lace idea, is just replacing your laces. You can either just buy a different colour of laces that adds a statement pop to your current shoes, or you can actually buy some super cute ribbon. This later idea is such a good one because of all the different ribbon options you have. Ribbon is sold at pretty much all craft stores and there's a huge selection Walmart, so it's really easy to get just the right look and colour.
I've picked out my favourite video on different ways to tie your shoes. The ideas in this video are both edgy and sophisticated. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as i do:
Next I'd like to talk a little bit about shoe repair. This is going to include cleaning, and just general repair. Here is something that you can do which is super simple, easy, and something people never think of. Take out your shoe laces, tie them together so they won't get lost, and just throw them into the wash. They'll come out looking fresh and new and improving the overall look of your shoes.
This one has been a huge help to me for my shoes, and the only thing you need is nail polish! Shoes get scratched or scraped pretty often. Especially if they are older, or you just wear them a ton. To fix them up once they are starting to look quite worn, get some nail polish that's the same colour as your shoes and just paint over the nicks and scratches. This repair is waterproof, and once you have the correct colour, you can always fix up more scuffed spots in the future. I'd call that a good investment.
I've also heard you can use modge podge and the correct colour of Glitter to repair glittery shoes with the same scuffs and scrapes.
An eraser whitens and cleans he rubber on sneakers to make them look as white as new. A toothbrush and toothpaste will clean up the cloth part of your sneakers as well. Especially the white ones.
Spraying some hydrogen peroxide directly into your shoes eliminates any foul odour they've picked up.
My last shoe repair hack is a bit extreme, but sometimes necessary to keep that favourite pair of shoes. Hot glue is an excellent sealing agent for binding together shoes that are just wearing down. the sole can be bound to the "body" of the shoe(so to speak). Other parts of the shoe that need to be bound together are also relatively easily repaired in this manner. Although at that point most would just go out and buy an identical pair of shoes new. I remain a pauper, so prefer repairing them myself and wearing them down until there is no more life in them.
As a waterproofing upgrade just get a little round candle and rub it into your cloth shoes. after that get your hairdryer, set it on its hottest setting and melt the wax into the cloth. After it cools down again your shoes will have been successfully waterproofed. For further instructions check out one of the many videos on youtube created on the subject.
Supposedly talcum powder, or baby powder makes a squeaky shoe hush up. I haven't had the opportunity to test that out though. I've never had squeaky shoes before.
Easy and quick DIY shoe designs include cutting out pictures of your choice from comic books or fan magazines. Then using modge podge to layer them yourself onto your own shoes. Another design is using Sharpies and alcohol to create a dark tie dye look then add stars with dots of white paint. With the same sharpie technique, you can create bright tie dye style shoes. Check out this cute video tutorial:
You can create bright, spunky patterns with fabric markers. Get creative! What do you want your shoes to say about you? Just be sure to follow the instructions on the fabric markers carefully, and maybe watch an inspiring tutorial to get some ideas if you don't already know what you want.
Well I hope that was helpful. Like this post if you want to see my try out some of these DIY's in a future post. I'll try to have another post out within a a couple weeks. Bye!!