So this post brings together a few of my favourite threads – sustainability, clothing (alright, shoes) and craft for the clumsy and cack-handed.
As you know I swore off buying new clothes last year and while I’m now happily (and hopefully sensibly) shopping again, it gave me a lot of time to reflect on what I already had and how I used it – and what I should and shouldn’t buy in future.
These boots probably fall into the ‘wouldn’t buy again’ category. Not that I dislike them, I’m just not a suitably responsible owner. The leather is thin and requires a lot of maintenance, to stay black and shiny.What’s worse the heels are also leather which means I would be guaranteed to wreck them – even without the pedal damage from regular cycling.
However they are too nice to throw or give away, and so I started hatching a restoration project. For the past year I’ve been cleaning them with one of those instant ‘restorer’ polishes, to very little avail. So the first step (after cleaning off the mud from their last wear) was to pick up some proper black wax polish, brush well in and leave to marinade overnight.
This morning it was time to brush them off, and actually I was pretty pleased with the result, properly shiny with the pedal gouge much less visible than it was before. But I’d had this idea for some modifications, taking advantage of the unusual cylindrical shape of the heel. And I’d splashed out on £4.49’s worth of tape. So it was time to play.
I had ten rolls of tape altogether and experimented with various very shiny combinations before relenting and opting for something a little more subtle. So here’s the result: What do you think? Left or right, one of each or back to black? I’m favouring left myself, but the boys prefer right. You can vote over on Insta
Last House But One 