At Bespoke JB, we’ll provide a variety of tips related to men’s fashion, to include some Do-It-Yourself (DIY) techniques and hacks.
Whether you’re traveling or not, you should always store your shoes in a shoe bag, one that is made of natural fibers like cotton or linen so that the leather can breathe yet keep dust off of them. Most folks use them for when traveling so the leather doesn’t get marred or your clothing doesn’t end up having shoe polish on them.
Most high-end leather shoes come with shoe bags, along with extra shoe laces, and sometimes a complimentary shoe shine kit. However, should you get shoes that don’t have shoe bags or if you’re wanting some shoe bags for your existing footwear, here are some DIY tips in making your own shoe bags.
Earlier this year, I took some old pants, one light-weight cotton chino (light blue) and one linen (navy blue) and converted the end of the legs into shoe bags by turning them inside out and sewing straight across. You already have one side with a nice finished edge, which works well for inserting and removing shoes. Voila! That easy. I didn’t bother to put in a draw-string as I wanted something simple to store them against dust and allow for quick retrieval. I reused something that I was otherwise going to donate to the thrift store and saved approximately $40 for the two pairs of shoe bags. I recently used the light blue ones with my suede chukka boots on a business trip and seeing them again prompted me to blog about them for others.
The picture below shows how similar in width the cut pants legs are compared to a typical pair of shoe bags. These work well for a pair of oxfords.
Now, I realize something… Most guys don’t own a sewing machine. However, you can take this same approach and with the legs inside out --- either hand sew a simple whip-stitch along the edge or use some permanent fabric glue for sealing the cut edges.
You can also get with someone who has a sewing machine (like your local tailor) for doing a quick, straight stitch on them. Or you can contact me offline about shipping your cut pant legs and I’ll sew them for you, free of charge.