Dotty Birkenstocks

I've had this pair of Birkenstocks for a few years now and decided they needed a makeover. They were originally red and much as I love red shoes I've hardly worn them, I think because I didn't really like the way the black buckles and soles looked with red uppers. I saw this blog post recently about covering shoes with fabric and Mod Podge, and was inspired to give mine a similar treatment.

I didn't use Mod Podge because I'd heard it could be very hard and crack, I decided to try my old faithful Aleene's Tacky Glue instead (I think it's the same as PVA in the UK). I smothered the shoes in the glue and cut out some fabric pieces bigger than the tops of the shoes in case the glue shrunk the fabric slightly. I stuck the fabric down cutting a slit where the fabric went over the buckle and then smothered the top of the fabric with another layer of glue. Once the glue was dry I trimmed around the edges with sharp pointy scissors for the top, and a craft knife by the soles.

I'm pretty pleased with how they've turned out, they still seem to be fairly flexible and don't feel too rough. I don't know how durable they'll be but I think if anything is going to happen to them it will just be that the fabric peels off. In that case I will either glue it back down or rip it all off and start again with different fabric for another new look. It looks like we're in for nice weather this weekend so I shall try them out then.

Okay, since I wrote this post this morning I have been wearing them in the house and I think we might have a solubility problem with the glue. I've noticed it goes white again if I accidentally splash water on them. Oops! I will be checking out the glue section the next time I go shopping for something a little more waterproof, or maybe a flexible varnish....