DIY Shoe Makeover: Zebra Striped Classic Canvas Kicks

I’ve been informed that they look like “old lady shoes” and “hospital slippers” but I persist in loving classic canvas sneakers. It is an absolute obsession that I have. I want a million pairs in a million colors. But not just plain, solid colors… I want crazy,  splatter painted, studded up, or, as in this case, zebra-striped.

Since I found cheapie versions of these that run around $10-12 with shipping, in a crazy variety of colors on eBay (search for women’s classic canvas) my addiction has hit an all-time high. Even if an idea I have is experimental, for a tenner I’m more than willing to give it a go. It could wind up being incredibly awesome.

When I was digging around in my shoes to the makeover box, I found these babies brand new and still in the packaging. Not sure how they slipped past me but it was like shoe lovin’ Christmas up in here. I busted out my black fabric Sharpies and started marking them up and hoped for the best. In the end, I’ve got a new pair to compliment my crazy collection and some kicks I’m sure to get asked about when I’m kicking about town!

This is a low-material/high impact project. You will need:

• Classic canvas shoes
• Black fabric marker

First things first, unless you have the concept of zebra print imprinted on your brain, you may need some inspiration images. Search for ‘zebra print’ in Google image search and you’ll have ample visual help.

Start drawing your zebra print onto the toe portion of the middle of the shoe and fill in.

Do the same on the back heel section. Draw your zebra, color in.

This is where we are going to mix it up a bit. Draw your zebra print, but instead of coloring in the stripes, color in the background. Since I had been coloring stripes for the whole project, I made dots as a guide so that I wouldn’t mess up.

On the toes, draw the stripes and color in the background. See what you get? It’s a visual difference that makes the shoes interesting without being so obvious that it’s really tacky. That is if you don’t think zebra print shoes are already tacky, of course!

Because I started with red shoes, my striping was much easier than if I started with black shoes. Painting or marking up a darker color with a lighter is always ideal. Since we’re really saturating the canvas to get a nice even black tone, you may want to hold off on wearing these guys for at least 24 hours to prevent smudging anything unlucky enough to catch your foot. I’m in love with my red pair, but I’m thinking purple might be next on the agenda!

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.