Each season brings new fashion trends and colors that most of us want to adopt. There are low-budget solutions tu update our wardrobe, and here’s one of them: dyeing textile shoes with a marker. Does it sound weird to paint you shoes with a marker? It might, but it’s worth giving it a try. This is a project simple and fun, so get your inspiration from the article below and craft it with your kids. Here’s how to dye textile shoes for a beautiful outcome, and a fresh new look for the summer.
What Materials You Need
The trick is the mix of permanent marker used for drawing on the fabric and rubbing alcohol sprayed over the fabric. The alcohol dissolves the color and makes it bleed, leaving behind an awesome visual effect. So, grab some Sharpies, rubbing alcohol, and textile shoes – white or light-colored. You also need a bottle with a sprayer cap, for sprinkling the rubbing alcohol alcohol on fabric.
Some gloves would be useful: if the fabric gets wet, the color will get on your hands. Not nice, I promise.
Steps to Follow
The shoes must be clean, cleaned of dust, stains or other traces that would prevent the color from bleeding. Draw on them whatever you like and partially cover the fabric in several colors. Then spray rubbing alcohol over the drawing and wait for bleeding to appear.
Keep in mind that you still need a little space between the colors so they would bleed and mix nicely.
You put the rubbing alcohol in the sprayer…
…then you sprinkle on the drawing.
Wait a little bit and you’ll see how the color bleeds beautifully all around the drawing.
The effect increases in time, until the alcohol evaporates and the textile gets dry. You’d better wear plastic gloves while handling the shoes, as the marker goes through the fabric, and most definitely would bleed on your hands too. How do I know? Take a good look at the pics for my gloves. Yes, they’re not there…
How It Looks at the End
Color resistance and depth depend on the marker you use. The markers have different pigments, with blue being the most resistant and passing through the fabric the most easily of them all. (It should also be noted that it stains the hands the worst.) Though, if you want to fix the colors, you should use a fixative spray to stabilize the drawing (you’ll also find it on Amazon, for sure).
You can apply this technique to other types of fabric, such as t-shirts or pillowcases. Take note that you might need to protect the other side of cloth by using a plastic sheet or divider inside.
Does this project inspire you? Pass it on to friends who are passionate about DIY and share it on social media!
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