Recycling Shoes? Why yes of course!

Why am I wearing two different shoes?

Well, I'm actually not! I made the one on the left out of the partner from the other one! Not that I didn't like the blue polka-dotted ones, no - in fact, I liked them so much, that they ended up looking like this:

Yikes!!
Turn something bad into something good? Yes, of course!



Recycling shoes makes perfect sense. Other than in worn clothes, where the "important parts" are usually the most worn-down ones (collars, cuffs, zippers...), in shoes it is quite the opposite. The inner parts are usually completely intact! This is also great because these parts can hardly be found in stores or online, which makes shoe-making at home difficult.
And for shoe-making beginners recycling is perfect, because while taking apart the shoes, you see exactly how they were made. You could even copy the exact pattern and re-make them just as they were:

Taking apart old shoes to see how they are made...

...and to rescue the important parts for making a new pair out of them!

I will make and post a tutorial video, but I just wanted to give you a quick preview here, since I probably won't get around to making the movie for another three weeks or so... But here are some quick glances at the making-of:

Oh and the best thing: No special equipment or tools needed! This is what I used (and you could do with even less different kinds of cutting instruments!):

And these are the materials needed (but you could easily make fabric shoes instead of leather ones, too):

 So I'm off to making the second shoe, I'll be filming and putting together the tutorial asap, promise.

In the meantime, take care and be creative!
All the best,
Katja