I bought some booties a while ago, but the shade of blue/dark teal was lighter than I thought so I couldn't really combine it with anything. I decided to dye them black, because black goes with ANYTHING.
So for anyone interested, here's how to do it!
HOW TO DYE SUEDE SHOES:
Stuff you need:
For clean up/ removing dye stains:
My shoes had plastic and metal studs on them, so this if for cleaning those areas which accidentally got stained.
Nail polish remover
tissue
cotton swabs
Cotton swab dipped in nail varnish remover. Do this step very gently! I did it too rough and I ended up removing a layer of the plastic. It's better to surround the area as I ended up removing a layer and tiny flecks of plastic were going onto the shoe.
So for anyone interested, here's how to do it!
HOW TO DYE SUEDE SHOES:
Stuff you need:
Tons of newspaper/ plastic mat/ something to cover the floor
Or you could do it outside.
The shoes
Brush out any bits with a suede brush/hard tooth brush. Make sure shoes are clean/dry.
Suede spray/dye
I used spray "suede restorer" but it worked.
Gloves
Masking tape
Or you could do it outside.
The shoes
Brush out any bits with a suede brush/hard tooth brush. Make sure shoes are clean/dry.
Suede spray/dye
I used spray "suede restorer" but it worked.
Gloves
Masking tape
For clean up/ removing dye stains:
My shoes had plastic and metal studs on them, so this if for cleaning those areas which accidentally got stained.
Nail polish remover
tissue
cotton swabs
How to:
- Masking tape off any areas of the shoes you don't want dyed.
- Make sure to use many small pieces to cover up any curved areas of the shoe.This takes a lot of time, but trust me it's worth taking extra care when doing this.
- Place the shoes on the flat surface you have heavily covered as the spray may drip/splatter. I actually stained my carpet doing this, so be careful.
- Spray the shoes in quick strokes, spray about 15cm away from the shoe.
- The spray I used recommended to wait one hour after each application. Once I covered both shoes, I left them to dry for about an hour and came back later to do a another layer and waited another hour e.t.c. Do as many layers as you want.
- Leave the shoes to dry for a couple of hours, better yet, a day.
I ended up using the whole can on one pair of shoes - I'm sure if the shoes were a lighter colour I could have used less layers of spray.
All the things I ended up using.
Timpson Suede & Nubuck Restorer
As you can see, I used loads small pieces of tape to layer up.
The zip is still blue, but it's dark enough so it doesn't stick out.
Final product!
Without flash
(You can see how I cleaned the stained buttons underneath)
(You can see how I cleaned the stained buttons underneath)
With flash
Weirdly, when I used flash I found that the shoes looked as if they hadn't been dyed at all!
How to remove dye stains:
Using some nail varnish remover I managed to clean off the stains of the dye.
Cotton swab dipped in nail varnish remover. Do this step very gently! I did it too rough and I ended up removing a layer of the plastic. It's better to surround the area as I ended up removing a layer and tiny flecks of plastic were going onto the shoe.
Change cotton swabs whenever you need to!
They were a little bit patchy but it wasn't too noticeable until you got really close to the shoe.
Without flash
Slightly patchy
With flash
Make sure the wipe the studs/buttons with a damp tissue afterwards to wipe off any excess remover!
Thanks for reading guys!
:D
