Brown Gets The Boot

Progress in the studio this week is inching along, but I have to reach back to the weekend for the satisfaction of something that's finished. Here's another project from the weekend afternoon I spent catching up on alterations and repairs.

As you may recall, my wardrobe is built around boots for practical reasons, not aesthetic ones. Several years ago, I started using leather dye in an attempt to make my footwear look a little less like steel-toed work boots. I love a pair I dyed red, but they don't quite work with everything in my wardrobe. (And now that the sole has cracked, the only time I'm that stylish is when I run the string trimmer.)

A pair I dyed black is also just about shot. But since I managed to find a pair of slightly dressier black boots that I can wear for teaching, I decided to try something else this time.

I mixed some black dye and red dye to get a nice oxblood color. The boot on the left is the original color. The one on the right has been dyed. The color is a bit washed out in the photos.

After dyeing the leather, I toned down the bright orange lining at the ankle with some Dye-na-flow fabric paint. After it dried I gave it a bit of heat setting with the iron. I'll also wait a couple of weeks before wearing the boots to give that paint time to cure so it doesn't come off on my socks.

Not exactly dyed-to-match lavender peep-toe pumps, to be sure, but better than they were. Then again, I could give them another coat and go a redder red...