2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

thriftwizard

I too grew up wearing shoes indoors, in a variety of draughty old vicarages with parquet/lino/slate/quarry-tiled floors & just the odd rug for a touch of warmth. I suppose we didn't have any carpets to spoil with outside dirt & we just swept the downstairs floors most evenings. And we don't have any fitted carpets here, either; for 15 years we had an incontinent cat (not her own fault) as well as 3 muddy sons (two avid sportsmen, one gardener!) and I don't think they've invented the carpet that could have dealt with that lot! I have stair "treads" - separate pads for each stair, with "noses" that bend round the front of the stair so as not to cause trips - which keep the noise down & are easy to clean. So we all have sturdy slippers with good grips; I've had a pair of Celtic ones, but they didn't last me any longer than my Kirkland Shearling mules, which are a lot cheaper. I'm afraid to admit I wear mules! Because I get athletes foot so I prefer to keep my feet cool when possible.

That said, many of my friends do have fitted carpets & kick their shoes off as they enter the house; carpet's a fairly major investment, after all. Also, I believe it's pretty much obligatory to remove one's shoes on entry in certain cultures like Japan & Korea, even though they're not great ones for carpet.

PollyWollyDoodle

Interesting re shoes; in a lot of cultures it is a given that you will take your shoes off when entering a house. My work involves visiting people mostly at home, and I always offered to take off my boots or shoes.

I have hard floors throughout my downstairs, but I try to take my shoes off before going upstairs where it’s carpet. I wear slippers like fluffy boots, mainly for warmth, but I try to remember to change them before I go outside. I have an old pair of leather mules by the back door. As my daily trip up the garden involves visiting the chicken run, I don’t want to walk anything back indoors!

dolly84

RicardaRacoon wrote: »

Laura, hope you're feeling better soon! It sounds like quite the fall you had!


About shoes in the house; I see a different trend. At least here in Switzerland, up until about 10 years ago it was considered quite rude to keep on your shoes when going to someones house. Kids took slippers with them when they went to play at a friends. Nowadays most people don't mind you keeping your shoes on when you visit but it is still considered polite to at least ask if it is ok to keep them on. It is not uncommon to pass your neigbours door and see a stack of shoes outside and know he is having a party. I also don't really know anyone who wears shoes in their own house, appart from occassions where you know you will be out of the door again within a couple of minutes.


I see my first points going soon as my one and only pair of jeans start to look worse for wear. Also I might need a pair of shoes come spring as I only have black ones after I ruined my only pair of brown ones by trying to repaint them to cover up some scratches. The paint came off after one hour of wearing them...

I've never worn my shoes in the house and automatically take them off when I visit people. Wearing shoes must really take its toll on your carpets and other flooring plus I don't want all the dirt and germs from the outside on my floors - btw I am not a germaphobe.

Laura_Elsewhere

catherine/kate wrote: »

I will also need to re-heel a lot of pairs of shoes to avoid buying new. I am considering getting a mixed size pack of heel tips from Ebay and trying this myself. Has anyone tried?

Welcome back!

Yes, I do all my own cobbling except major repairs - I buy on eBay from a seller called e-cobbler who is well-priced and seems to sell everything I need. I buy new soles and heels, and the Klebfest or Soltrak glue. I don't have the kinds of heeled shoes that only have a tip these days, although in the past I have re-done those heels and it worked fine - I used a dab of glue as well as hammering the spike in. I have wider heels nowadays, 1.5" or more across, so I use glue and tie string tightly round to compress it for 24 hours, with a folded sock over the top to avoid denting the leather badly. A bit of trial and error and you'll work out the best way to apply pressure on your particular shoes and boots!
Once I've got the new heels on, I hammer and glue on the Blakey's NON-METAL segs, which I buy online from the Blakey's website. That way I only ever need to replace those, and don't have to re-heel again.
With re-soling, I use the big plastic grips sold in pound-shops that look a bit like plastic versions of jump-lead clips, all round the shoe-sole, and move them every hour or two, to try and compress as much of the edge as possible. Again, leave the glue for 24 hrs to really dry.

The really important thing is roughening the surfaces before glueing - I have one of the little metal scrapers that come with many soles and glues, but I also use an old vegetable-peeling knife to score across and across diagonally at angles to really key the surface for the glue to grip to.

It saves a fortune!!!

Laura_Elsewhere

Has everyone made it through the Forum Re-Building?  

PipneyJane

Amazingly, yes.  Had to reset my password, though.
Oh, and I didn't get any of yesterday's digests.
- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

Yes, I had to do a password re-set too, but they did warn us! I can't see any of my thread subscriptions at present, but I did get an instant-email about your reply - although normally I just get a weekly one, so I hope I can re-set that in due course.

They said a couple of weeks for it all to settle down  

Laura_Elsewhere

Aha, found my old "Subs" page - it's now called "Bookmarks"!  

CAFCGirl

I have but i'm feeling lost LOL

PollyWollyDoodle

Phew, we are all still here - I would really miss this thread! 

Laura, thanks for the advice about reheeling/resoling shoes, I am never convinced that they do a good job at these while-you-wait places.  I might invest in some glue and soles, and the Blakeys as I often wear out the front edge of the sole.

that reminds me, i have to declare 12 coupons as I have bought two pairs of boots; both in the sale, I bought some ankle boots last year and have worn them so much, I decided to invest in some more.  I now have two pairs of knee-length boots, very old but still good, and three pairs of ankle boots - should keep me going for the next decade or so, I think!