Converse Make Over - 2 Styles 2 Ways

Children go through shoes like they go through chocolate bars on a sunday afternoon and there is nothing worse than paying through the nose for a pair of designer or expensive trainers only to be told a few weeks later that “I just dont like them anymore” believe me I’ve heard it once to often for my liking. But this is where up-cycling comes in, you can turn those so called unfashionable trainers into something thats unique and that those darling little people of yours will enjoy showing off to their mates!

Thankfully with brands like Toms and Converse up-cycling is stupidly easy and for very little cost and effort you, even the least crafty of you out there will be able to get stuck in.

To create these My Little Pony inspired converse I simply got the eldests Converse, swaped out the laces for Shoeps, check them out if you have never seen them before, amaxing invention in my opinion. Then bought two iron on patches from eBay…

These where a few pounds each and where what the daughter had chosen so odds on I knew she would fall in love with these shoes all over again.

The tricky part was ironing the patches long enough to withstand wearing. They will take but be patient, it will take about 30 mins to make sure they are fully secured. Alternatively you can sew them on just as easy just use a simpathetic thread colour so the stitches will get lost.

Now for something a little different! This pair I up-cycled for myself after my 10 year old pink converse boots where looking a little tired. They had been my loyal companions and desperatly wanting a pair of Doctor Who inspired ones I had seen on Etsy for shocking amounts of money I figured, ‘Make you own!’.

This project is a little more time consuming, it isnt something that can be thrown together in a few hours on a wet sunday afternoon. It took me just over a week to get them looking exactly as I had invisioned but it was worth the wait! You will need glitter glue in your choice of colour. I bought 6 bottles from Home Bargains for approx 80p each. A few years ago for my birthday I made over a pair of brogues and turned them into glittered Dorothy inspired shoes, I loved them but sadly they only endured one outing as I had used glue and glitter seperatly and through wear they split and the glitter/glue combination flaked off so I knew i had to get the glitter on in a more wearable way so i gave the glitter glue combo a try.

This was at about 3 coats. As you can see it takes a while for the colour to build up but I knew the would be wearable and thats all that mattered! Oh and now waterproof too! Continue in this vain until you achieve the colour you desire. It took 7 days of coats with drying inbetween to achieve the deep tardis blue I wanted.

Once the colour depth has been achieved tidy up a little. Any glitter glue on the lace rings or on the soles will simply peel off but be gentle. Once they where tidied up and ready to wear I swapped out the old hello kitty laces for wide blue satin ribbon. Not very practical for the supermarket run but they look AMAZING!