Tea Stained "TOMS" Shoes: A Tutorial

I really wanted a pair of TOMS shoes for the summer, but they are way out of my budget. Luckily, I found a pair of these Toms look-a-likes at Target for only $17.  I didn't like the bright white, though, so I decided to dye the shoes with tea.  The inspiration for this project comes from Sweet Verbena.

Tutorial

You will need: white canvas shoes, tea, and Sharpie markers.

Step 1: Remove the inserts from the shoes. You do not want these getting wet when you dye your shoes.

Step 2: In the sink, run your shoes in water.  If the fabric is wet, it will absorb the dye more readily.  Set shoes aside.

Step 3: In a large pot, boil enough water to cover your shoes.  I used 24 cups.  Make sure that you keep track of how many cups of water you put into the pot.

Step 4: Remove the strings and tags from as many teabags as cups of water you are boiling.  When the water comes to a boil, lower the heat and add the teabags.  Stir gently and let steep for 5 minutes.

Step 5: Fish out the teabags and discard them.  Put your shoes into the pot of tea and squish them down to make sure that they are fully submerged.  Let them soak and check them every 5-10 minutes.

Step 6: When the shoes are darker than you want them to be, take them out of the pot and rinse them in warm water and soap.  The color of the shoes will lighten.

Step 7: Put your shoes through the washer and dryer.

Step 8: Decorate as you wish with a Sharpie marker (optional).  I tested this and didn't like how it turned out, so I wished that I had left the shoes as they were.  This led to a whole debacle, and eventually I ended up painting the part with the Sharpie.

The Mistake

So there you go!  Simple summer shoes that look like Toms, but at the fraction of the price.  Something that I learned during this project: if you like how something looks, just STOP working on it.  Less is more.  I should not have tried to decorate the shoes with Sharpie, and eventually tried to recreate what the shoes looked like before.  If I had just stopped, I would have been saved all that time and effort.


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