DIY Shoe Makeover: Pencil & Composition Book Shoes

It’s been quite some time since I’ve been in school, over a decade. But way back when, these days in early August I only had one thing on my mind… My back to school clothes and shoes and shopping, shopping, shopping.

I remember visiting store after store and having the hardest time making up my mind on what I wanted to wear, what I wanted to say with my clothes for the year. And to be honest, again, I don’t quite know what you would consider my style to have been but I have been informed that it would be something like preppy with a side of a drama student.

Yes, I dug the Polo tops but I also liked some things that weren’t quite the norm. For instance, not once in my high school career, outside of gym glass or dance class did I wear white socks. No sirree, bob. I had quite the collection of patterned socks and one of my favorite pairs looked like pencils.

So when I was pondering a pair of plain, white, classic canvas shoes and thinking of back to school, the pencil thing came back to my mind. And since sometimes I like things to be oddly asymmetrical, I decided that one pencil was enough. The other would bear the pattern of a true pencil’s mate – the composition book!

For this project you will need:

• white classic canvas sneakers
• water-soluble fabric marking pen
• black fabric paint
• golden yellow fabric paint
• ecru fabric paint
• pink fabric paint or red fabric paint (for the eraser)
• silver acrylic paint

First, our composition book shoe is best done with inspiration nearby… Using a water-soluble marker, or a black fabric marker, draw the shapes you see on the notebook (or a Google image search pic of one) onto your shoe and all around.

Use black fabric paint to fill in the areas around your drawings. I went pretty big, and if I had it to do over again, I think I’d make my pattern considerably smaller… Set aside and get ready to start on the pencil shoe.

Now use your water-soluble marking pen to draw out the shape of a pencil on your shoe. I wasn’t sure how big I’d want the middle, yellow bit so I drew two lines to see which I preferred. Since the pen is water-soluble it’s no problem!

Fill in the yellow pencil area with your fabric paint.

And then the black graphite of the toe.

And paint your heel your eraser pink or red, and a small strip of silver just beside on both the inside and outside to mimic the silver thing that holds the eraser onto the pencil. Also, use your ecru to fill in the wood part of the pencil nib.

Let your shoes totally dry (I didn’t and you can see some ecru on the notebook shoe I have to fix up, but I was so darn excited!)

These look a lot more difficult to make than they really are. The pencil is just basic shapes and if you use a good quality fabric painting brush that is stiffer than traditional brushes (mine are Tulip and I LOVE them) you’ll get nice, sharp lines easily. And if you’re more into symmetry, you can have two pencils or two composition book shoes instead of a mix!

Allison

A crafter since her earliest years, Allison spends a little time every day making something. She crafts, sews, paints, glues things onto other things, and is a firm believer that a life spent creating is a life worth living. Visit Allison’s blog, Dream {a Little} BIGGER.