Ever bought a new pair of shoe that are tight or half a size smaller?
Recently I bought *counting* five pairs of shoes from the recent FJ Benjamin warehouse sales and two out of the five pairs are pumps. I’ve always adore GUESS shoes although their shoes could be quite high and slim for my fatty feet :D. All along I assume imported brands is larger in size but I couldn’t even fit into my usual Size 7! Warehouse sales could be a bit troublesome to ask for shoe to try so I ended up with Size 7.5 after I fail to fit in Size 7.
Fortunately for me I accidentally came across a tutorial from Michelle Phan on how to expand or stretch new shoe so I tried it on my “zebra” pumps and it works! I thought you might want to know this trick too so here’s my version on How To Stretch Your Shoe 😉
According to Michelle Phan, this method will be able to stretch leather shoe permanently from half a size to a full size larger. Synthetic material shoe will work just fine but you might need to repeat the process as and when needed. I’m not sure what is my shoe’s material made from. I believe I saw a label stated cow leather or something. Anyway I’m just going to assume mine is made from synthetic material lol 😀
First, you will need two zip lock sandwich bag. I bought a box from Ikea previously. There’s two different sizes of sandwich bag in a box and I’m using the small bags. Even that also it’s too huge for my shoe.
Next, fill in with some water. Not too much. Pour away or add in to get the right amount later if needed.
Grab the corner and try gathering all the water on the other corner and stuff the edge into your new pumps. The type of pumps could be a fully covered like mine or a peep toe. It doesn’t matter. You will know which part of the shoe is tight on your feet so make sure that area is nicely covered with the bag of water.
Then, put the whole shoe in the freezer until the water in the bag is fully frozen and turned to ice :D. For this step, make sure you clean the base of the shoe before putting into the freezer for hygiene purposes. My shoe is brand new and mum is okay with it ;). What I do is I’ll put the shoe in the freezer at night. By the time I went to bed, the water has turned into ice.
Once the water has frozen into ice, take the shoe out from the freezer and let the ice thaw (unfreeze) at room temperature. As for me, I will take the shoe out right before I go to sleep. There will be some water sweat from the thawing process but don’t worry, a little water is fine.
By the time the whole bag of ice finished it’s thawing process, take the bag out and wipe the shoe down with a cloth or tissue. Then try the shoe on! You will notice that the shoe is somehow looser. I don’t agree with Michelle Phan that the shoe will expand to one size larger. It is definitely looser, maybe half a size but not as loose as one full size.
The reason why I do the freezing at night before bed and thawing in the middle of the night is because I can wear the shoe the next morning :).
There are concerns on whether the shoe will be too large or loose after using this method. Look…you only do this little trick when your shoe is too tight or too small on you. You just don’t do this when the shoe fits perfectly on you. That’s the whole purpose of this tips – to make your new shoe more comfortable. It’s not going to give you a major size change so don’t sweat about it 😀
As for me, I like to finish it off with Scholl Leather Heel Liners. This makes the walking more comfortable without the friction at the back that is possible in causing skin peeling 😉
Hope you enjoyed and learnt a trick or two with this simple fashion tips. It certainly works for me and I do hope it does to you too!
Comments (14)
I’ve heard of this method before. I also read somewhere that if your shoes smell, leaving them to freeze overnight will remove the smell as it kills the bacteria. I’ve never tried it because I’m not sure if the freezing will cause any glue to spoil. What do you think?
And hello from Penang at the moment!
Hello Penang! 😀
I’ve not heard of freezing shoe to remove smell though. There’s always dehumidifier or odour remover thing from Daiso to take care of that :P. This method only need to do once or maybe twice. After that the shoe will expand naturally from constant wearing. I personally believe that a few hours of freezing will not spoilt the glue.
Wow, this is such an interesting post! Thanks for this tip and also the one on the Scholl Leather Heel Liners 🙂
I’m glad you like it 😀
Scholl Leather Heel Liners is something that I must buy for all my new pumps. It makes so much difference.
hello Fiona dear! I kind of like this post! very useful tips i think. really I have some pairs of shoes/heels that is a little bit tight for me>_< gonna try this out. muahahaha. between, i was wondering if this tips work for flats too. what do you think? 😀
Hi Aby, long time no see. I think this tip is useful so I tried it out personally on my new shoes and it works :D. Flats should work the same but usually flats will be loosen in no time. Just wear it more often.
may i know, is the Scholl heel liners is very sticky that it can stick to the heels and despite you have wear the shoes many times also it would not come off? i used watson brand before, not so nice to use.
Nope. Won’t come off easily. I bought and use so many at one time. So far no issue.
Wow, thanks for sharing this tip, my dear! This is such an amazing trick lol 🙂 I am so enamoured by your heels by the way. Lovely pair. Brings out the little animal in us hehehehe 😛
I’m glad you like this tips :D. I know right…it’s so mind boggling how ice can expand the shoe. Usually cold means shrink but this seems to be in the opposite. Oh this heels is the lowest in height in GUESS. I spotted it right away. The rest is like sky high.
Hehe you carry off sky high heels very well 😉 Remember the glitter fairy dressing? That was awesome. You never cease to amaze me, from the Daiso shoe box to expanding shoes with ice! 🙂
Oh yea that shoe was so painful LOL. Had it for so long that the glue is starting to fail on me haha. StriVectin event was the last wear for that poor shoe. Expanding shoe with ice is like the cheapest to almost zero cost to expand shoe. If I send to cobbler it will cost some bucks and who knows later what will happen to my new shoe. Cobbler is not going to be gentle. They will torture the shoe until it expand. Well, that’s what I think haha.
Does it work?? I saw in Michelle Phan youtube too but I haven’t try before. I have quite a few pair which is not fit my leg as well. Cause my legs are too big and usually nice and pretty shoes in mall only up to size 39! 🙁
It does, otherwise why would I want to blog about it? 😉