Tag Archives: lotta from stockholm

Shoe rescue – Part 2

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Don’t you love it when you order something fully expecting it to take 635 business days to arrive or some nonsense and then three days later it’s snuggled in your mailbox just waiting for you?

I do.

When we last left off on the fascinating saga of my Lottas, they both looked kind of like the one on the right.

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I was kicking myself for not buying the silver ones, so when I started looking into how to brighten up my blue ones with shoe polish, it suddenly occurred to me that I could just change the color of mine instead of buying a whole new pair. A few Google searches led me to discover Angelus acrylic leather paint, which I bought in silver.

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Make sure to clean your shoes before you start painting!

Although it does come with a handy dandy brush attached to the lid, I recommend pouring some into a small dish and mixing in a small bit of water to thin it out a little. You do have to apply a few more coats this way but they’ll look more even. I also found it helpful to paint it in sections and dry each section with a hairdryer as I went along. Something about the heat melting the acrylic onto the leather for better hold?

I ended up doing about five coats of watered down paint.

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After the paint dries you’re supposed to polish them but all I had was some leather lotion so I used that. And now they look like this!

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And now I can’t wait for spring so I can wear them with pretty floral dresses. And shorts. And basically everything.

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I think maybe next year I’ll paint them red.

Shoe rescue – Part 1

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You may recall this lovely pair of Lottas that I got last summer. In fact, they’re even featured in my blog header.

Except you might have noticed that they’ve faded quite a bit.

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Yikes! And sad 🙁

What also kind of sucks is that I ordered the wrong size so they’re a bit too big on me, which was fine until I broke them in and the straps became too loose for them to actually stay on my feet. Double sad.

I had toyed with the idea of cutting out a part of the strap and then sewing the ends together to shorten the whole thing, but these are one of my favorite pairs of shoes (although realistically, which ones aren’t?) and I have no experience working with leather so I was very wary.

Today decided to just go for it. Either I leave them alone and pretty much never wear them or I completely screw them up and they become unwearable. Or all goes well and I end up with a gorgeous pair of sandals that actually fit!

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I essentially put the shoe on, pulled the strap outward, and cut the strap right where it hit the center of my heel. I then took a 1″ piece of elastic and sewed it onto one cut side of the strap, then to the other, creating two X shapes when they’re lined up. It would be a good idea to reinforce this with something iron-able or fray check or possible some sort of leather glue.

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This is what it looks like from the back. Not too shabby, right? If you’re really worried about aesthetics, you could even glue something decorative there to cover the stitches.

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Next up, dealing with the color fading issue. But I have to wait for supplies to come in the mail.

I hate waiting.

Slightly behind

Sorry for the radio silence over here, Boyfriend and I decided to take a spontaneous trip home for the week before his exams get crazy again.

I have some photos to post but I’m exhausted to a point that is kind of ridiculous considering the time difference is only three hours. Yeesh.

For now, here’s the measly Instagram version of the past few days

We finally went to a Giants game while we were home! 🙂

We lost though 🙁

And here’s an awful picture of the gorgeous view on our way out of the park.

Boyfriend decided to whip up some burgers yesterday. He stuffed them with grated cheddar and chopped onions and we had them with sourdough bread with a fried egg on top.

I sort of accidentally broke the yolks on both eggs. Whoops.

Sneaking a trip home was nice, and coming back was kind of weird.

Having these lovelies waiting for me when I arrived completely made up for it though!

No, seriously. -squee!-

Anyways, I’ve got some lovelies to share in the next few days: a dress or two, a project I’m quite excited about, and another costume post.

Have a nice weekend!

 

PS I sort of just started this whole Instagram thing (the woes of having an android) but follow me here if you like!