Metal DIY Projects #7: Thrash-as-fuck shoes
White high tops and skinny jeans. If that doesn’t scream 80s fashion to you, I don’t know what else does. Thrashers have been wearing these since the early 80s, thank Lemmy that they are back in fashion and we can find them everywhere for decent prices.
But, what if you don’t have a pair of high tops? Maybe they don’t fit your style, maybe you have amazing friends that will step on them just for giggles.
I’m here to show you a great alternative to flashy white high tops, that you could make with things that you could have laying around the house!
The materials that you are going to need are:
1. First, find thes shoe that you are going to use for the DIY. For me, personally, it was this pair of Converse that I had for so many years now, that from dark blue, they turned grey, and they pink-ish brown. I was going to throw them away, but then I had this great idea..!
The only thing that you have to watch out for, is the fact that not all fabrics change colour with bleach. Synthetic fabrics will not change colour at all, while those made out of cotton will turn completely white after a few hours.
To test this out, drop a drop of bleach on the fabric of the shoe and let it do its work for an hour. If the fabric has changed to white (or at least cream white), your pair of shoes will do just fine for this DIY!
2. Prepare the shoes for bleaching. Remove the laces and put them aside. Wipe any mud and dirt from the shoes and put them in a bucket. Take them outside, in a well ventilated space, like a balcony.
Make sure that you are wearing old clothes that you don’t mind staining. Wear your mask, or at least tie a cloth over your nose and mouth. You don’t want to breath in the bleach as you work. It will make your eyes itch, and your throat will feel dry and sore. Wear plastic gloves and secure them around your wrists with hair-ties. Finally, if you have sensitive eyes, wear sunglasses.
In a container, mix 3 parts of bleach and 1 part water. With a brush, start applying the mixture on your shoes. Make sure to cover the entire shoe as you work, and that it is absorbing the mixture well.
Personally, it took me five coats to reach the colour that I wanted. You can see how mine looked like after the first application of bleach and... yeah they suck. They look worse than they did before I started. Continue applying bleach until you are satisfied with their colour.
Also, make your life easier by letting them in the sun between coats. The sun will speed up the process so much more! I did this twice, once on my own on a sunny day and once with a friend on a rainy day.
It took me two hours with breaks to bleach them out, but when I did it in an enclosed space with no light, it took an entire evening. Good luck to people living in countries where sun is scarce. xD
3. Time to wash all the bleach away! Start by letting them dry once they are white enough for your taste. Take them inside and start rinsing all the bleach off under running water. It is very important that no bleach stays on the fabric of shoe, because if it does, it will start leaking into your socks once you start sweating. This might cause skin iriitations, so watch out!
Once your shoes stop giving off that weird smell that bleach has, put them in your bucket and apply detergent all over them. With a hard brush (or with your hands if you can) start cleaning the shoes, until no dirt and dust is left.
Let them dry in the sun for about two days. You want them to be completely dry before you move to the next step.
4. As you wait for the shoes to dry, wash your shoe laces with some more detergent. Applying bleach won’t make them any whiter, as they are made from synthetic fibers, so try your best to clean them. Let them dry too.
Lace up your shoes and walk them around for a bit, to break them in. Converse have a tendency to tighten up after washing, so take a walk around the house to loosen up the fabric.
Now, your pair is white as a fucking canvas! You can either leave them like that, or you can follow the steps below to add a design of your choice.
And of all the things I could have choosen, I decided to write EET FUK on them.
Yeah. So unique, I know.
5. Time to test out which inks will work the best. I turned the tongue of my shoe inside out and and drew four lines with four different pens/markers:
Then, I soaked the fabric with water and started rubbing them with a cotton swab. I went with the ballpoint pen and the permanent marker, as they were the onces that even after 10 minutes of rubbing, faded/bled very little.
6. Using a picture of the guitar as a guide, I sketched out the EET FUK sticker on a piece of paper. With an exacto knife I carved the basic outline of the letters to use it as a stencil then taped it on the shoe.
With a pencil I marked the outline on the shoe and removed the stencil. I did the same thing for both shoes.
7. I went over the outline with the pen, and then did the same thing with the permanent marker. Using my picture as a guide, I smudged the ink to make it look more like the sticker and added more details with my pen.
I did the same thing for the other shoe, and erased any remaining pencil outline with a white eraser.
Thank you for following through this tutorial and I hope I have helped you out somehow! Send in any questions that you might have, submit your own DIYs, or even send picture of what you have made for me to feature on my blog!
Fun Story: I always wanted to get my hands on that legendary guitar. I saw once a replica at a local guitar shop and I was drooling in front of the glass display, long enough that one of the employees came out of the shop and asked me if I wanted to come inside and play it.
