Dyeing Leather Soles / Coloured Soles

[Guest melissabliss]

Hello everyone,

 

Apologies for the intrusion. I am a mere mortal, and no nothing about making shoes (but would actually love to learn!). But am in need of some advice about dyeing leather soles or if soles can be painted or if they can come in colours...

 

Its a selfish, personal quest to get baby blue coloured soles to my shoes for my wedding next year (a year to the day actually - ha ha!)...

 

I have been looking for my "something blue", and would love baby blue coloured soles (like the red of the Christian Louboutins).

 

I have a few questions, I hoped you experts could help me answer:

 

- Can you paint/dye plain beige leather soles on wedding bridal shoes (that come in ivory silk/satin)? Obviously, without ruining the white/ivory of the shoe...

 

- Can you resole the entire shoe, even if it is brand new, to a baby blue coloured sole instead?

 

- If yes, to either of the above - who/where can I get this done? (I am in the home counties, nearest town is Reading or Guildford).

 

The shoe I have finally found in the style I like is from a bridal shoe supplier called Ivory (and the shoe link can be found here: http://www.ivoryshoes.com/shoes_07.htm)

 

 

I'm sorry for the long winded post, but wondered if this quest was possible? And if not, I will have to re-evaluate my wedding shoe plans!!

 

I really appreciate any help or advice anyone can give me.

 

Thank you so much for your time.

 

Kind regards,

Melissa

xxx

[Lee]

I would have thought your best option on these would be to use Lady Esquire dye in a Blue Colour.

 

which is a similar blue to this however it won't wear that well on a sole & you will be showing through to the original sole colour by the time you walk up the isle.

 

I would have thought using a shape in the middle "might" stop them looking to bad to soon! simular to this

 

I would be happy to do this for you (you might get a better suggestion from someone else) but by the time you've paid postage etc. it will be quite expensive!

 

Lee

[kobblers]

call at your local cobblers and ask him for some leather off cuts then try test staining them with blue wood wash

 

rick.

[Lee]

thats only OK, IF!

 

The soles are leather & a lot of wedding shoes aren't

 

I have just looked up Baby Blue in wiki & realise its a lot lighter than the lady esquire blue!

 

However these can be mixed Melissa, to achieve a lighter shade!

 

Lee

[Iain]

What a cracking challenge!!

 

I'll do them for you Melissa,

 

Send me an email please.

 

Ta,

 

Iain

[Hugh-Candoit (ENG)]

Dylon shoe colouring/Lady Esquire shoe colouring available from Hardware stores and most shoe repairers will coat the surface.

The soles are invariably made from resin not leather unless you can verify this.

Alternatives can be as follow,

If leather then wood stains could do the job.

Any type of sole can be coloured?sprayed using air brush techniques (local Nail salon may do it).

Local artists / shoe repairers with the skill of airbrushing.

Local car body shop/mobile dent repairs ets specialising in touch-ups (they will need a sample colour to match to.)

You could of course enquire at the nearest specialist Art suppliers as they usually have many customers doing special projects, some at art colledges.

Local Halfords and get a Car spray (Acrylic), spray them yourself after masking the shoe area with masking tape.. or ask your local shoe repairer if he will do this for you. (my prefered method).

 

The surface of the sole area should be very lightly sanded for the paint to adhere to otherwise it may peel off quite easily.

[hibsjo(SCO)]

I can see several different blue soling materials from the Gotz cataloge

http://www.goetz-service.com/web/pdf/goetzkatalog.pdf

carry on!

[Hugh-Candoit (ENG)]

Actually getting the soles may be a different story hibs.

Also after handling many hudreds of these Satin/silk/Crepe shoes I wouyld not advise removing the sole and replacing. It aint as easy as leather uppers and can easily mark or damage the delicate fabric.

 

you could always cover the sole in "Fablon"