Un-DIYing a Pair of Shoes — Sandy Salierno

Many years ago I bought oh so many rhinestones to make a pair of crystal shoes.

These are not those shoes.

These shoes are ones I used some of the very many extra rhinestones to rhinestone out.

I loved these. I made them during the pandemic and whenever I threw them on to walk the dog I felt super happy, joyful.

Sparkly.

One of the issues is I didn’t have E6000 when I made them so I used Gem-Tac. I love Gem-Tac but for these, I just don’t think it worked. A lot of the rhinestones fell off and it was time to retire them. The issue is I just couldn’t get rid of a perfectly good pair of shoes.

I also don’t think they fit in with the rest of my wardrobe. Don’t get me wrong: I had fun wearing them, I love the idea of them, and I do think these would look amazing on somebody. I just don’t think that’s me. To be perfectly honest I don’t even think plain white sneakers are really me either but I think they’ll blend in a lot more with my vacation and summer wardrobe than anything else I have.

I noticed the warning on Gem-Tac that states you shouldn’t freeze it so I popped these in a bag, put them in the freezer, and honestly just forgot about them.

The poor movers when they found these. Though I think my nod and, “Oh yeah, I know.” confused them even more.

Enter now when I want to bring these on my trip in a few weeks. It’s time.

A few considerations:

1) we can safely say that freezing does break the bonds of Gem-Tac. This is good to know not just for regrets but also for future DIY planning. I remember a few years ago embellished tuques were a really big trend. If you live somewhere where it’s actually cold Gem-Tac would not be the thing to use for this.

2) I did have to pick off a lot of gems. This KILLS the nails. (especially with the next step) Do not do this with a fresh manicure.

3) Lots of the rhinestones left their silver foil backing. There’s also a lot of glue residue.

4)I have no idea where I put the laces for these.

My first thought was acetone, however; my worry with this is that the shoes are faux leather and one of the ways you test fabric content is by soaking it in acetone and seeing if it melts. While watching that would be kind of cool I don’t want to melt these.

I started very cautiously and found that nail polish remover will remove the silver bits but some of the glue is still stuck.

All up, this isn’t perfect but it’s not the worst job. Honestly, I’ll be wearing this in a city so they’re probably going to get dirty quickly anyway.

I think I’ll give them another swipe with acetone the next time I take my nail polish off. I was wearing a dark red polish that was starting to mark the white leather so between that and me just not wanting to do this anymore I kind of did a bad job on the one on the right. Otherwise, I’ve ordered some new laces and I think these will be good to go…. or as good as I can get them.

I’m hoping to go through more of my old DIYs that I don’t wear and really think about why I made them and why I don’t wear them. I want to be really thoughtful about what I make and hopefully, this will keep me accountable and give you consideration for your own making as well.

And keep you from using Gem-Tac in cold weather!

I made a video for this. It’s quite rambly but goes through all the steps.