DIY Sneakers Decoration

Although sneakers are not as glamorous as heels, wedges, or knee high boots, they are the most comfortable shoes to wear. My enthusiasm to wear heels usually evaporates after a short and painful night out and I quickly go back to my good old sneakers. Since I spend most of my time in sneakers, I was very happy to find an interesting blog post with do-it-yourself ideas for DIY sneakers decoration. I decided to give one of their suggestions a try – gluing lace to sneakers.

My cheap sneakers were the perfect Guinea pig, since I have been wearing them for over a year now and started getting tired of their plain look. I also used some lace and appliques:

I started by choosing a design I liked, using both black and white lace, as well as some lace butterfly appliques. To get lace strips that are identical in length and width, I folded the lace several times before cutting the edges of the folded piece. I used pins to hold the folded lace together. This is an easy way to get identical strips of fabric.

Once I had my lace ready, I tried using regular “Scotch” superglue to glue the lace to the sneakers. However, I immediately noticed three issues with the glue:

• The glue soaked in the fabric of the sneakers, so I had to use a lot of it to be able to glue the lace
• The chemicals in the glue almost melted the lace
• After the glue dried, its color changed from transparent to white

Since any of these three things will make DIY sneakers decoration impossible, I decided to sew the lace instead of gluing it. These issues might be the result of the particular type of glue I used. If you decide to use glue, make sure that you use a glue suitable for fabric.

If you decide to sew the decorations instead, use a thread that matches the color of the lace or appliques. Sewing inside the sneakers can be a bit tricky, depending on the model of sneakers you are working with and on the location of your decorations. However, after only half an hour, I completed my DIY sneakers decoration project.

 

I also tried sewing some appliques on the soft fabric boots that flood the stores every winter. I sewed four red flower appliques on the side of each boot. It was really easy to sew through the fabric and the boots looked a lot more interesting and more expensive afterwards. Check out this blog post for my fabric boots decoration experiment.