Shoe Love

A couple days ago I was visiting the love of my life. During this visit I got a pair of shoes (every girl's dream!). I must give credit to my sister for introducing me to this very special addition to my life. This love of mine is not a man...someday my prince will come...it's a store. The Goodwill Outlet is magical land where treasures are sold by the pound. If you don't mind a little digging (okay, a lot of digging) you will find amazing deals on everything you didn't know you needed. So, back to the story...

While on my most recent trip to the Goodwill Outlet I found a pair of Ralph Lauren Polo brand canvas shoes. They were in fairly good shape, but looked as though they were left out on the porch all summer long. What had once been a dark navy blue had faded to splotchy shades of purple and red. The rubber soles were a little dirty and the white color was yellowed with age. You can see why these shoes had been passed by in the regular Goodwill stores. But, at $0.99/lb these shoes cost right around a buck. I can work with that! Below I'll show you step by step how I am giving new life to these shoes.

In The Beginning:

Bath Time:

The soles of the shoes are taking a leisurely soak in hot water with some laundry detergent
to help remove some of the dirt stains

An old tooth brush is a great tool for scrubbing the textured rubber soles.
The bristles easily get down in all the little grooves where dirt likes to hide.

If you've never used a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, or a store brand equivalent
you are missing out on a miracle of modern engineering. It basically acts like
the finest grit of sand paper in the world, gently removing a micro-thin layer from whatever
you're scrubbing. It easily powered through the yellowed rubber.

Look how white it is now!

So clean and pretty. If you are attempting this sort of project I would recommend
holding off on deep cleaning the rubber until the very end. While dying the shoes
some smudges appeared and I had to spot clean them again...live and learn, right?

"Why yes, I'm a natural blue":

I picked up a bottle of Rit Dye for a few bucks. I chose the liquid form because
I wanted to use the dye in a super concentrated form. I didn't have to mess
with a packet of powder and I can save the rest of the dye for later use.

In my handy dandy glass bowl I mixed about 1/4 of the bottle of dye with
3/4 cup of hot water and about a tablespoon of salt. The original instructions
call for 1/2 the bottle mixed with 3 gallons of water. My mix is super, super
concentrated.

With a stiff bristled nylon brush (it holds the liquid dye well) I painted the dye onto the damp shoes.
The dye soaked through to the inside canvas, originally an ivory color, so I improvised and painted the
inside walls of the shoes with the dye as well. A little wee bit found it's way to the bottom of the shoe
but I will clean that up later (besides, it's inside the shoe so who will know?)

Time to make a nice shoe sauna. Normally when dying fabric you soak your item in boiling hot water.
This helps the color to adhere to the fabric. Had I done this with the shoes, the soles would have been
stained blue and the canvas would have shrunk quite a bit. That is why I painted the dye on. To emulate
the hot water bath, put my wet shoes in a plastic bag to keep the moisture in.

I then put an electric heating pad over the shoes to keep them hot and help the dye set

A towel wrapped around the bundle insulates the shoes, keeping them warmer and
creating a nice spa like environment for them. I let my shoes rest for about an hour.
To test the color, I rinsed one of the shoes thoroughly and then blow dried
a spot to see how it looked dry. The color was still a little pinkish so I gave both shoes
another coat of dye and let the sit for another hour.

A Shoe Emerges From its Cocoon, Transformed:

The color didn't turn out quite as blue as I'd intended..it's more of a dark purple.
That's alright though. I love purple and they don't look sun bleached anymore!

The moral of this story is that you can take a pair of shoes that have seen better days and just like Cinderella's Fairy Godmother, you can snazzy them up again. Cleaning and repairing what you already own saves you so much money compared to replacing them. Or, like in this tale, you can buy pre-loved items from thrift stores and make them your own. I spent a total of $5 on these shoes and supplies and I ended up with shoes that look like they did when the first owner payed $50 for them. Go forth now and Renew your Relics!