DIY Upcycled Boots

Tools and materials:

• Black boots
• Chains
• Jewelry pliers
• Leather straps/belts
• Scissors
• Paper

You need to start with a pair of plain black platform boots. Stuff the boots with paper (this could be scrunched up tissue paper, regular paper, or newspaper) to make them nice and rigid so that they won’t be all floppy when you’re working on them.

Arrange accessories on the boots

There aren’t really any hard and fast rules to this DIY. It is just about experimenting and having fun. You can start by positioning a chain to where you want it to go and then pinning it in place - as you can see from the picture, I positioned one at the front of the boot. You may need to use the pliers to cut the chains to the right length. 

With this project, you can always change your mind and rearrange things until you get your desired look. I placed a leather belt on the boot but decided that I didn’t actually want the belts to feature on my finished design.

Sew

Once you’ve pinned down all of the accessories on the boot to where you’d like them to be, proceed to sew them into place. It’s up to you how tight or dangly you’d like the chains to be as well as how much you sew them to the boot. The only thing you need to ensure is that all of the accessories along the zipper line are sewed down.

These are my finished boots! They are all jeweled up. As I mentioned, I decided not to go with the leather belts in the end and instead just used the chains. I’m sure that the belts would create a really funky biker look if you decide to use them on yours. I used lots of different chains, of different sizes, all along my boots. At the top, I created a really fun detail by looping the chains instead of keeping them flat. This was such an enjoyable project. After you’ve styled the boots, it’s like you have a whole new pair of shoes to wear!