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Cost: $ $ $ $ $

Difficulty: • • • • •

Time: 30 mins

Make your old shoes new again!
I really wanted new shoes- but the only shoes I like are Converse, and they get expensive. So, since I've been wanting to throw bleach on stuff all the time, I decided to use some old fake converse and bleach them. Then I figured, hey, why not customize them while I'm at it? And that is what I did.

Posted by Ellie from Eatonton, Georgia, United States • Published 1st July 2011 • See Ellie's 3 projects »

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Step 1
You will need:
-Darkly colored canvas shoes (I used fake converse)
-A mixture of 3/4 bleach, 1/4 water in a spray bottle
-Duct tape (optional. I've read that paper with spray adhesive also works, but both of these are optional.
Step 2
Clean and unlace your shoes. Bleach stains dark colors best, so you need to make sure they're dark. I also bleached the laces separately in a cup full of water and a splash of bleach.
Step 3
This step is optional. I used duct tape and an xacto blade to cut out "ELLIE" and tape it onto my shoe. I've read (but not tried) that you can also use paper cutouts, using a spray adhesive so it will stick and the bleach won't bleed through. You can do as many designs, shapes, patterns as you want, I just put my name.
Step 4
Begin spraying! Using a mixture of 3/4 bleach and 1/4 water, spray bleach onto the shoes. Make sure you do this somewhere where nobody will mind the bleach- I used my bathroom sink. Also: I recommend wearing gloves. My hands still smell like bleach. You can also use a paintbrush to paint on the shoes or splatter the mixture onto them- whatever you'd like to do. Be creative!Keep spraying until you're satisfied.
Step 5
When I peeled off the duct tape, I found that I didn't attach it as well as I should have and ended up with runny letters. But there is a fix for this! Your handy dandy sharpie! I used my black sharpie to fix the blobs into nice, clean letters.
Step 6
I sprayed and splattered a tiny bit more onto where the duct tape was, then continued spraying and splattering onto the other shoe. Add as little or as much as needed.
Step 7
Now, dry off the rubber parts of your shoes and relace them! You could also use your sharpie to doodle on the rubber, if you want. I liked them the way they are, so I left them that way. Let the shoes dry and then you're ready to show off your new customized shoes!