A quick make over!
I have been rather a busy bee over the last few days working gathering up new ideas (and shopping).
It was a fabulous few days off and I got to see my friends and have some time to cook up some new ideas and things to keep me occupied!
I was shopping with my dad's girlfriend on Monday we were wandering about enjoying the lack of rain. We walked past a Kurt Geiger outlet store and I found their "Audit" shoes in a nude patent leather alas they only had a size 7 left. However they had them in a size 5 pale pink nubuck. I tried it on and fell in love and for £25 (reduced from £150) why not! I asked for the other one so I could see what they were like to walk in and the assistant informed me the display shoes had faded from a bright salmon pink to the pale colour. She brought out the left shoe which was still the original colour. (A lovely colour yes but generally I am not really into bright pink)
Before I had even said anything she suggested I could dye it another colour or try and fade the left shoe to match the right. The thought of dying them a different colour had already crossed my mind because pale coloured suede and nubuck is impossible to keep its original colour. My only thought was I did not want to spend that amount of money on mismatched shoes and she offered to reduce them to £9. I said no problem I will take them.
As she was putting them through the till she asked nervously will I be ok dying them. Did I have any experience with that kind of task? (I dyed a satchel blue last year, this is where I learned you can dye suede, and there is an earlier post on the blog showing the bag.)
I assured her it was no problem!
I spent a few days debating about what colour to dye them and how to solve the problem with matching the colour. Originally I was quite taken by the idea of dying them vermillion red or even orange. Instead I decided I wanted shoes I could wear more often and get away with at work and nights out. I also wanted them so that if they needed treating or the colour needed a touch up it was easily done. I wanted them to be black; the only issue with this is you cannot put black suede dye straight onto a pale coloured material because it comes out blue. I learnt this last summer when my favourite suede Topshop wedges were ruined and the only way to rescue them was to dye them.
The dye I used was DYLON suede and nubuck dye in navy. I was using this as the base, so I would have an even colour and I was going to layer the black on after.
The nice thing about dying suede is that it's straight forward and simple. You just clean the suede, bring a brush suede brush over it and paint the dye on in layers. Usually two layers are enough.
I had too do, three extra coats on the faded shoe to even the colour. They came out indigo blue. The pink and navy have created a really lovely purple. I decided to leave them that colour because it really compliments the pink heel well and I have to much black in my wardrobe!
I wore them to work and they got many compliments.
It was realy satisfying getting £150 shoes for £9 and making them my own.
They are really comfortable and lovely to wear!
And to show the standard "before" picture
The "after" picture.
In other news here is a picture of the vintage satchel I have been waxing lyrical about.
Have a good weekend!
