Harris Tweed Converse

For this project you'll need some Harris Tweed in your favourite colour and any pair of Converse or sports shoe you have kicking around.
Unlace the shoes.
Pull the tongue of the shoe out and trace around it's outline onto paper.
Using a ruler to get your dimensions, create patterns for both sides of the main body of the shoe.
Add a 3/4" seam allowance around your pattern pieces and cut out.
Fold the tweed in half so that you have two bits of fabric on top of each other and pin the pattern pieces on top.
Cut around the pattern pieces and remove the pins to reveal two identical pieces of fabric.
Make small snips around the seam allowance on your tongue pattern piece.
Fold the seam allowance back on the paper pattern and pin the pattern in the middle of the tongue cut of fabric.
Using the pattern piece as your guide, fold and pin the seam allowance on the fabric back.
Place the fabric against the tongue on the shoe, adding a pin or two to keep it in place and fold up the bottom edge of the tweed and pin so the tongue is the right height.
Unpin the edges at the bottom of the tweed tongue and sew along the bottom edge of the tweed
Re-pin the edges at the bottom of the tweed tongue to the right size.
Now pin the tweed tongue in position on the tongue of the shoe.
Carefully sew around the outline, removing the pins as you go.
Hand stitch any areas that are too tricky to do by machine. Repeat for the second shoe.
Following the same process with the snipping and folding the paper pattern, pin the patterns for the sides of the shoe onto the fabric.
Sew the bottom edges.
Pin the tweed in place along the bottom edge of the shoe.
Working from the start of the shoe backwards, fold the fabric under and pin neatly around the edges.
Continue pining around the entire outline of the shoe. Folding at the back where it meets the back seam.
Sew the pieces in place using a heavy duty needle on your sewing machine.
Do the same with the other side of the shoe.
When you're done. Use some fabric glue to stick the bottom of the fabric along the line of the shoe where it meets the sole.
You can make a matching tweed strip for the back of your shoes but I wanted to give mine an edgier look with a metal zip. I simply cut two matching strips from an existing zip to the right height for the back of the shoe.
I then attached the zip with fabric glue, folded under the edges of the fabric at either side, glued them down and pinned in place until the glue was stuck.
Once the glue has dried. Hand stitch down the sides of the fabric alongside the zip.
Now it's time to add the eyelets back. Use a hole punch to punch a hole through the tweed where each eyelet sits.
Using a needle and a strand or two of embroidery floss, stitch around the entire outline of the eyelet.
For the finishing touch, stitch a Harris Tweed label onto the side of each shoe.
Re-lace up the shoes and they're ready to wear!