DIY Floral Brogues (a neat way to update your shoe collection)

 I bought some fairly basic but nice shoes the other day from Rubi Shoes, then promptly went mad and half-destroyed them. Well, what I was trying to do was to paint them and make them look all oxford-style and elegant, but all I managed to achieve was... well... this.

It wasn't pretty. Paint + shoes + the place where your foot bends so that you can walk = a flaky, crumbling, crappy looking mess which look like you've walked through a construction site then through wet paint then back through the construction site again for some reason.

LUCKILY, as I also used a really crappy paint, it washed off. I was on a mission though, and still wanted to DIY these shoes SOMEHOW. So, from my ever-expanding hoard of fabrics I grabbed this quilter's fat-pack I bought the other day at Spotlight (because it was on sale for $1.50, and the pattern was pretty). I cut out 4 strips measuring 28cm x 12cm (11in x 5in) , removed the shoelaces and then glued them (using craft glue) very carefully to the top parts of the shoes (the parts within the pre-made borders).

I didn't risk covering the toe area again, as I had learnt that that area gets very creased by walking.

Then I used my precision knife to cut out very carefully along the ridgey bit of the shoe, and glued these edgey bits down with craft glue.

Get one of these knives, they're very good for this kind of thing, and for general DIY-ing. Don't try and use scissors for this DIY, it will either be very very very hard, or won't work.

I then had a bit of an issue poking back through the shoe-laces hole, but managed to eventually fix it all up. And look how they turned out!

 

Well, they're at least much better than my genius painting idea. And no one else owns a pair like them. I was pretty happy with my DIY shoes in the end!

Find an old pair of flats or basic brouges that need an update, and try it out yourself!

Have a stunning day!

Annika xxx