Saving Shoes

I bought some leather vintage sandals for £3. They were pretty worn on the insides. So much so that I did not take photos of how they were before. Here's how to restore them. Much of the techniques remain the same as in this tutorial I posted back in July.

1. Give them a good clean inside and out. Wipe down with antibacterial wipes. Be careful what you use as some may remove the colour. 

2. Pull up the insoles and clean underneath, brush off any residue. Generally the inside of the shoes are going to be the most worn. If the outsides are heavily worn too then they may not be worth saving. Refurbishing the outside will need proper leather paint and this is approximately £5 a small bottle for one basic shade. 

3. Cut leather insoles to the size and glue to the old insoles if they are salvageable. I stripped the foam backing from the new insoles as the old ones had cushioning in them but you will probably wish to keep this if you are not backing the new insoles to the old ones. 

4. Paint the toe/front area with leather paint or acrylic paint. If using acrylic, varnish over the top once dry to seal it. Use black acrylic or plastic/metal paint and a fine paintbrush to neaten the edges. 

5. Glue insoles back in. It's worth getting a glue especially for leather as superglue is too brittle and a runny glue can seep through the insoles to leave marks. I used a UHU contact glue which is basically a pritt stick for leather, metal and plastic. 

Good as new :-)