A little shoe makeover

I love fun shoes but they can be a bit expensive, and I can never find exactly what I'm looking for.

 

so I decided to take a stab at making some myself. I had some old sketchers that were very comfortable and in a plain gray, and I had some old bark cloth fabric that was fun and funky and I went to work.

Step one was to make a template, I did this out of a piece of scrap fabric, and then transferred it onto a piece of paper

. The same template can be used for both shoes, just turn it over.

Cut your fabric, and then using Goop Glue or or favorite craft glue begin gluing and the fabric down where it should go. Pin as you go to hold it in place while it dries. For a finished look, I followed the original stitching of the shoe leaving portions exposed as well as the tag.
 

Let dry and then I hand stitched the edges with a running quilt stitch. This will give those edges a little extra strength. I left the edges raw to fray naturally

If you don't have a pair of old shoes, Hobby Lobby is now selling canvas blanks for just 9.99 and they look very  much like Toms.

I think these are now my favorite fun shoes.

Barkcloth projects

 I love vintage Barkcloth and I especially love the retro designs.

 Used mostly for curtains, you can still find large panels of barkcloth at estate sales and antique stores. I recently picked up 3 nice sized panels and began looking for projects for this lovely pattern.  Here are a few, common and unusual projects I tried, or found on line.

 Dress up an old dress form, with some groovy barkcloth scraps.

Laminate   an old school chair that has seen better days. 

See before and after photos at the end of this post.

Use mod podge to decoupage some old trays. For instructions look here.

 

Dress up an old stool base

Cover some shoes, See here for instructions



I keep my collection on display using vintage wooden hangers



My friend Karla makes some fun Flea Market Aprons out of vintage fabrics, including barkcloth. You can view her store here.

 found on Etsy are some amazing and beautiful pillows and pillow covers.

See store here 

And a lot of totes and bags using old barkcloth. See more here

I saw this pillow in Minnesota at Hunt & Gather.

Of course you can always make curtains, cover chairs etc.

 So keep your eye out for this nubby fabric with fun designs for your next project. And if the price is good, don't hesitate to purchase.

Chair Project

This old chair was in poor shape. first I used wood glue to secure the layers of plywood as much as possible.

I sprayed it with spray adhesive, pressed the fabric down. Painted with several layers of Mod Podge, Using the same technique I use with my trays. See details here