My sister gave me a pair of Toms two Christmases ago and they’ve been well worn. All the social goodness aside I love Toms because they’re comfortable on my ever worsening bunions and don’t require a lot of fuss. I wore the white lace ones during the reception for our wedding and they glide across a dance floor like a dream.
Well traveled. Well loved.
A couple of weeks ago I was at a dental CE day and across the parking lot from the conference center was a fabric store. I wandered in and while browsing some cute cotton duck fabric, remembered this awesome tutorial on how to repair your Toms. So here’s my cobbling experiment:
Supplies: Well loved Toms, heavy weight fabric, denim iron on patches, fabric glue (I used Aleen’s fabric fusion), and pins. Optional: needle and thread for sewing a hem if you need one.
1. Wash and dry the front area where you’ll be patching. I scrubbed mine with a kitchen brush to knock off the dirt and let air dry.
2. Apply denim iron on patches per their instructions. As the previous tutorial states, you don’t want to put new holes in your repaired shoes. I found it easiest to fold a piece of paper and hold it against the patch from the inside so I wasn’t burning my hands. Rounded edges tend to stay down better and are easier to iron than squared ones.
3. Spread fabric glue all over the front section and place the finished hem of some fabric against the diagonally finished line of the front section. I didn’t have any already hemmed fabric like the tutorial so I sewed two straightish lines to finish off my fabric. The raspberry thread made a nice, happy contrast. I found it easiest to pin the fabric here once I’d smoothed out the wrinkles to keep it in place.
4. Slowly trim around the bottom edge and tuck it in against the sole of the shoe. I placed extra glue to help hold it in place and a knitting needle made a great tucker. For the front I folded the fabric like the original shoe, added some more glue for good measure and pinned down.
5. Let dry according to the fabric glue’s directions (mine was 2-4 hours).
Welp, you can clearly see I needed to warm up on the sewing machine as the lines on the left one aren’t quite as straight as the ones on the right..
6. Wash the fabric glue off of everything you got it on.. which for me was a lot!
7. Go for a run and enjoy the beautiful spring while you wait.
Magnolia liliiflora against a cherished blue sky
8. Wear and enjoy!
Patched and ready for more adventures
I didn’t end up patched the little bunion hole on the left one, mostly because the inside fabric is holding up well. For now I’ll leave it be. They’re nothing fancy, but they’ll be perfect for jotting across the street for coffee or browsing the farmer’s market next weekend.
