If you're like me (and so many others) you've found that after wearing your Toms for awhile, all of a sudden (seemingly out of nowhere) your big toe has made a hole in your pretty shoes.
After continuing to wear them for awhile and ignoring the problem, I finally decided to retire my first pair of Toms. I put them in my crafting corner with high hopes of one day coming up with a great solution.
I had been eyeing these Toms that a friend of a friend makes with new Toms, but I didn't feel like I had the creativity to pull that off. However, with a little searching on Pinterest (of course) I found my solution--along with a magical adhesive product I never knew existed.
So with out anymore chatter, here is {the fabric stack}'s very first crafty tutorial.
Toms Makeover:
1. Get a coupon and go to Michael's craft store. Find the Aleene's® Permanent Fabric Adhesive Sheets in the glue aisle. I'm not sure if that link is to the same exact product I got, the package looks different than mine, but just get the one that says it's for fabric (see picture above.) I think it was $7.99 before coupon.
2. Go home, dig out your old dilapidated Toms and patch the toe hole(s.) Patching your shoes isn't 100% necessary, but I felt like it would feel weird not to patch them--plus it makes them stronger.
3. Carefully spread your adhesive sheet around the front half of your Toms. (In my first picture I stuffed a shoe because I thought that would make it easier, but as it turns out, it was easier to have my hand on the inside.) The adhesive is like double stick tape, so you can reveal one side and stick, cut and fit it, and then peel off the top. The second picture shows the glistening of the adhesive spread on my shoe. Do your best to get it all the way to the edge of the canvas and then not onto the sole so that your lines will look clean when you're finished.4. Select your fabric and give it a fresh cut on the line that will be on the diagonal to avoid the frayed look. Then decide how you want to place it and start placing onto your adhesive, being sure to leave enough hangover to cover the toe.
5. Gently press the fabric over the front of your shoe, working your way to the center/front. You're basically trying to follow the folds of the canvas, so you'll want to push the sides towards the front and stop at the folds, then fold your fabric in to match and push down over the front. I chose to put extra little pieces of adhesive in between my folds to keep them looking sharp.
6. Once you get it all pressed down, take some scissors and trim your fabric up to the top of the sole of your shoes.
7. I used Fray Check on the edges of my fabric in hopes to keep the edges as clean and neat as possible. If you don't mind yours fraying with wear and tear, then you could skip this step.
8. All done! Clean up your mess and wear your new shoes.
