Restoring a pair of heels - an unnecessary oddisey

A long time ago I bought some really unexpensive purple heels from a shoe store. I really loved the velvety fringe on the back of the shoes, and I most certainly needed a pair of purple heels.

A couple of months went by without me wearing the shoes. One day, as I took them out of the box, I realized they were peeling and had some stains on them  -and they were still brand new!    I was horrified about this and failed to plan what to do with them. I thought about covering them with purple fabric, but it didn't seem as such a good idea. Meanwhile, the pair rested on its box waiting for me to find a solution.

Some time later I came across a small business that sold glitter heels and sandals. That gave me the idea of covering the peeled parts of my shoes with purple glitter, saving them in a brilliant -pun intended- way. In the meantime, I peeled everything off and gave them a skimpy coat of purple paint.

My search for packs of purple glitter began, only to find out that apparently every craft shop, stationary store and other school supply businesses in town had ran out of purple glitter. Perfect. Just perfect. I kept looking for purple glitter occasionally, failing to succeed in my quest. I eventually found one or two places that had purple glitter, but frankly it was a hideous shade of color.

About one month ago I finally found the cherished packs of purple glitter. I went ahead and bought four of them just to make sure I would have enough to cover the whole pair. When I got home I decided to give a paint job to the heels first. I proceeded to prepare a mix using one part of shiny magenta fabric paint, one part of metallic blue acrylic paint, and a bit of black fabric paint.

I could not believe the amazing purple color that now rested on the cup after blending in all the colors. It was so dreamy, reminiscent of galaxy shades of purple. I started painting the shoes with a small brush and immediately fell in love with how they looked. I was even feeling the need of not coating them with glitter after they had dried. So I finished painting them and left them to dry for a whole day.

The heels looked so fabulous that I finally decided to skip the glitter. I gave them two coats of hairspray and left them outside to dry. That day, it rained. I got really sad because I thought all my work was probably damaged, only to discover that the shoes had survived epically and the paint remained as good as ever.

So if you have a pair of peeling or worn-off pleather shoes, I would definitely recommend taking off all the damaged material and finding a nice paint blend to restore them. You can also DIY them with glitter, but make sure to paint them with a base coat before covering them completely in sparkles.

 More posts will be coming up next week!