This is my race!: Mid-calf boots to booties refashion

Fall has officially come to Ohio! I'm in LOVE! It makes me wonder how this little Arizona girl ever lived without seasons!

View from my back door!

I'm drinking hot cocoa in warm snuggly sweaters almost daily! This weather has definitely got me in the dress up mood so I busted out my boots. I bought a couple pairs of boots a few years ago when we first moved to Utah. I tried to wear them, I really did put in the effort, but I just feel so silly in them! I cannot pull off the boot look. When booties started to become popular I got a cute pair of them on clearance from Rue 21. I like those and feel like they're more me. Only problem is they're an off color brown that's really hard to match with anything. I've been rationalizing in my heard that I deserve a shoe shopping trip and that I should give boots another try. But one trip to the store shut that idea down quick! There's no way I'm going to spend so much on footwear that I don't even feel like me in! There HAD to be another way to just make do with what I already had. I tried my old mid-calf ones on again.

Again- not me.

Before- too tall

I fiddled around with them for some time and decided to just change them into something that I WAS more comfortable with. One great solution was to tuck the upper portion of the boot cuff down into the heel to shorten the appearance of the boot while still maintaining the style of the top. Since these were slouchy boots it worked great with no noticeable flaws, only problem was it made my toes cramp up too much from smooshing so much extra leather into the boot.

My woosie way of shortening- just tucked the cuff in on itself. But my feet were too squished!

I needed to permanently take out the extra leather. I thought about these silly boots and how they've just been sitting in my closet untouched for two years. If I cut them up and ruined them I really wouldn’t be out much. I took the chance and ended up creating awesomness!!

Check it out!

I could have just cut off the top of the boot, tucked the rest of the cuff over and been done, but I really wanted to keep the cute rim of the boot. I love the pant hemming trick where you keep the original hem so I applied the same principle here.

I made two cuts, one to the up and one to the lower portions of the boot then discarded the middle left over leather.

The top part of the cuff was too wide around for my ankle since it was designed to fit around my calf. I turn it inside out, flattened the cuff and sewed about ¾ inch in from the back side twice to reinforce the seam. I was super impressed with how well my cheap machine handled sewing through leather and the inside boot lining!

After trimming the excess leather I turned it back right side out and positioned it where I wanted it on my boot. I tried a few different ways, but ultimately decided I liked the cuff attached back to the outside of the boot best. The slouches and buckle help camoflauge the new seam transition but if your boots don’t have a buckle try attaching the shortened cuff to the inside or all the way down next to the sole of the shoe. I could have sewed it again at this point but I was in a hurry and my trusty glue gun was sitting right there so I gave it a go. The hot glue binded the leather to itself perfectly and gave me the exact control I wanted. I quickly trimmed up the inside to make the lining pretty again and