I've renovated old shoes...

Quasar

I've had these Clark's Springers for three years now, and wear them in the winter on most days. They are comfy, wide, have a slight arch which is ideal for my feet and the sole is almost indestructible. That's saying something because I usually wear out ordinary soles in two months.

Anyway, all this wear has told much on the uppers, which got rather scuffed and discoloured, and became unfit to be seen. In the end I was ashamed to wear them, even though still perfectly good.

Now, I love painting, big time, and have a rather complete little artists' studio in a corner. So I took out palette, palette knife and a some acrylic paints and started mixing pigments until I got a practically exact match of the burgundy coloured shoes. The amount of paint required was rather small, at the cost of a few pence.

Then got a cloth and dabbed the shoes with this colour (brush not as good for this), first the discoloured bits, then a brisk rub on the entire uppers. Since acrylics dry very quickly, about three hours later I applied the usual shiny shoe polish.

Won't need to buy new shoes for a while yet, because these now look perfect.

ladygrey_2

that is such a great tip
I would have thought paint would have made the leather stiff!!!

wigginsmum

Excellent idea

FZwanab

Would acrylic not wash off in the rain, perhaps oil paint may be better?? But good idea nonetheless.

Quasar

Blimey, I had forgotten about this thread! Sorry for being so late in answering!

ladygrey - The secret is to apply this paint with a cloth and a very thin veneer of it. Artists' quality acrylic paint is as pliant as oils.

dinkydee - Acrylic does not wash off in the rain because when it dries it becomes waterproof.

Quackers

It sounds like the springers you are talking about were made of nubuck? Similar to suede?

If so, you can just put ordinary polish over them. A couple of coats of coloured polish/coloured shoe cream and the shoes/sandals would eventually end up as a leather finish and you could continue to take care of them by polishing them.

Hope that makes sense!!

larmy16

I saw this tip years ago on BBC2. They had this programme, where one week it would be tailors passing on well known tips, oh yes - I think it was called tips of the trade, something like that.

Well this one was covered by a programme by the wardrobe ladies who supplied costumes for various programmes. I have a pair of shoes from Primark - they were £8.00 and every six months or so, I give them a coat of black acrylic paint.

The best though was when my ds was about eight or so, I painted his old trainers gold and black, much to the envy of his mates - eventually what with playing football etc the paint did chip off, but for ordinary wear, it works great - you could use it too to touch up little girls tap shoes etc.

The tip was touted as a far cheaper alternative to shoe dyes. A bottle of acrylic craft paint is between £1.00 - £1.15 in all the colours you could imagine.

HOLsale

larmy16 wrote:

I saw this tip years ago on BBC2. They had this programme, where one week it would be tailors passing on well known tips, oh yes - I think it was called tips of the trade, something like that.The tip was touted as a far cheaper alternative to shoe dyes. A bottle of acrylic craft paint is between £1.00 - £1.15 in all the colours you could imagine.

it's called trade secrets, i have 2 of the books

i used to touch up ex husbands work gear (he was a police officer so he HAD to have 'perfect' gear) with a black permanent marker! worked great as a temporary fix for creases in his work belt, his combat boots etc... all his gear was very expensive so this saved us a fortune. course it does have to be reapplied but it's super fast and super cheap

i like the acrylic idea, i really must try that with dh's combats, he is quite hard on them and they look awful after a few months so this would help quite a bit, the boots outlast the finish by years!

Austin_Allegro

Never underestimate the uses you can get from a set of oil paints! Pound shops usually do cheap chinese sets, and you can make up any colour of the rainbow for touching up damaged furniture, white goods, carpets, even clothing - just test it on an inconspicous area first!

xxbutterflygirlxx

I have just painted a pair of shoes using acrylic paints (they look byoooootiful) and was just wondering what is the best thing to protect them, was thinking clear polish or something? They started out white and are now dark purple so they are bound to crack.

Alleycat

I bought a pair of nubuck clarkes shoes for my dd off Ebay and was wondering if the suggestion of using acrylic paint would work for them? They should be quite a bright pink colour but are pretty faded from washing. I want them to stay nice and soft and nubucky rather than too shiney like leather.

Anyone any ideas??!