I bought a pair of ballet flats at Old Navy that I loved. They were black and WHITE zebra-print fabric flats with a little black bow on the front. I was not a huge fan of the bow, so I took it off. I very carefully used a seam-ripper to slice the threads that were holding it in place. I was in love with them after that and I wore them that way for about a year.
This year, however, they were looking so dirty and I could not get them clean to save my life. I put them in the washing machine, still dingy… I tried scrubbing them and just faded the black stripes instead of cleaning the white sections. I had come to terms with the fact that they were GRAY and black instead of WHITE and black. Then I had a stroke of genius; I should dye them GRAY! That is precisely what I did and it increased the longevity of this inexpensive pair of shoes immensely!
What do you think?

Here’s how I did it:
Well, I had already washed them and let them dry. On the stove, in a large pot I heated 1/4 of a package of black RIT dye and enough water to cover the shoes. I submerged the shoes for about 5 minutes and then immediately rinsed them off.
*A few of things to note here:
- I was ready to give up on these shoes and throw them out, so I was willing to risk them in this experiment.
- I had already washed them before dyeing them, so they took the color very well. (Had I not washed them, they may have still had a treatment on them that might have prevented color absorption.)
- I did not want the dingy white sections to be black, just gray. So I only used a small amount of dye and only left the shoes submerged for a short amount of time and rinsed them immediately.
Do you have pair of shoes that needs a face lift? Extend the life of your shoes and save by foregoing the purchase of new ones.