Crayons to the Rescue! Fluevog Fixers

Hello! You might recall that when I unpacked my spring/summer clothes in my March closet swap-over (here), I was devastated to find that some colour had stained my orange and yellow waxed canvas Big Presence Desmonds (picture here). Ruined!

They'd already had quite a bit of wear and tear, just from wearing them - I'd talked to my local Victoria Fluevogologist Katie W. months ago (before the recent staining) about what to do to fix the various marks, scuffs and buff patterns that were marring the waxed fabric, and she suggested crayons. After all, it's a wax finish. I picked up a box of Crayolas ages ago with grand plans, which of course, I never got around to.

I've had the shoes and the crayons sitting out for nearly two months, and today I finally decided to bite the bullet and see if I could fix them, or at least make them presentable and wearable again. 

Above, the Before picture...

And below...

The After! They are again wearable - the yellow ones came out better, but they had less damage overall. The orange ones are...acceptable. 

So, wanna see what I did? Let's take a look at them again. I'm set up on my kitchen counter, with paper towels laid out, and my crayon colour selections chosen. 

I've circled two of the spots. Mental note for packing these up in September: wrap each shoe separately. 

 I dug into our crafting stash and found an unopened pack of nylon-bristled brushes. 

I made a mini double-boiler out of some steel measuring cups. Water in the bottom cup, inner burner on Low and the smaller cup floating.

I started with the yellow shoes, and chopped off a length of the yellow crayon with a steak knife. Klassy!

I chopped it finely, and transferred the wax to the cup with a cake/pie slicer thingy. 

I won it at Pampered Chef party years ago. I only use it for serving lasagna.

I stirred the wax with a wooden toothpick.

When it was all melted, I used the biggest brush and took a deep breath!

Some Before pictures. One of the spots on the toe of the left shoe.

The top of the right shoe also had spots.

Plus wear-and-tear along the side and toe.

The outside of the left shoe.

Some more wear spots. Not too bad.

I painted the wax on, gently heating the brush on the bottom of the top pan when it started getting clumpy.

A great colour match!

The inside of the right shoe.

I found that thin layers worked better.

It took a few layers to cover the orange spots.

The Before:

That colour went right down to the canvas - I could not scrape it off.

The right shoe Afters.

 Looks pretty good!

I gentle scraped at the edges of these raised areas with my fingernail to make it look more natural.

Some of the thicker areas cracked a bit when I did this.

The toe area of the right shoe, with all the spots covered up, pre-scraping

Remember, this is what it used to look like:

Not bad! I'm happy with that!

Now the orange pair. These pair have always been weird. The right shoe has always been a mess with much softer canvas, wear spots and colour rubbing off. 

The one obvious dark stain, but the other areas are heavily worn, with the wax rubbed off in places.

Same with the outside of the shoe.

 Even around the heels and the edges of the vamp.

The top of the right shoe is just nasty. I had to nearly "repaint" the entire thing in crayon wax.

The left shoe is nearly pristine in comparison.

 A few minor marks on the insides.

 And one big spot on the toe - the storage damage.

I mixed the light orange with the orange red crayon, with more of the lighter orange.

I used a bit too much of the dark orange. Ah well. Noted for next time, or when I do touch-ups.

I cleaned up between colours by wiping out the top cup with a paper towel and reheating it to get every bit of the yellow out. I washed the brush in the hot water of the bottom cup and wiped it down with a paper towel, repeating until it was clean.

After touching up the left orange shoe.

 Spotless!

It's a bit noticeable on the toe where the spot was - I buffed that off with my fingernail. The wax on the sole came off easily.

Here's the Before again.

That's a solid cover job. 

From there I went back to the more problematic right shoe. After - you can see that the darker red is a bit streaky due to the thin layers I built up.

 The Before again:

And the inside:

 With the Before again:

They look fine from a distance, but are much more messy close-up:

I have a feeling this may crackle when I wear them.

But compared to what they looked like before...

I think they turned out rather well!

After "sanding" them down with my nail, I gave them a vigorous brushing with a soft toothbrush to remove any shininess and smooth down the edges of the wax "patches."

I thought a firmer bristle would cause more flaking. This ended up working quite well and gave them a soft buff.

Here's the comparison of the two orange shoes side by side. Not perfect, but fine for another season of wear.

This repair worked best on the yellow shoes, but I'm very pleased with how it covered many of the wear spots on both shoes, including the toes.

 And here we are, all ready for wearing again!

I'm feeling rather pleased with myself!

I went find Vizzini for some cuddles and validation.

"Do you mind, Woman? I'm napping here!"

So helpful.