Tuesday 25 January 2011

Tartan Feet for Burns Night.

Prompted by this post by Penny Dreadful Vintage I went in hunt of my tartan boots to wear in honour of Burns Night! I did finally locate my Docs in the bottom of number 2 wardrobe in a sealed plastic container


along side them where the long red leather pair I had completely forgotten I had!


I think it is about time I sorted my footwear out again..........

As I mentioned in a much older post we have a damp/mould problem in this house. As we are only renting there isn't a lot we can do about it except keep the rooms ventilated, keep the wardrobes ajar and away from exterior walls. After living in the house about 18 months with none of the above in place I discovered my lovely Tartan Docs were covered in mildew along with most of my other shoes and handbags, so was anything wicker, the curtains, some bedding......oh the list goes on.
I was heartbroken at the things that I had to throw away because they were beyond salvation. Bleach and Milton's Fluid became my best friends. Now I couldn't bleach my Docs as they are fabric, so I took the chance and gently scrubbed them with a toothbrush dipped in a solution of Milton's which is a much milder bleach. This could still have taken the colour out but I figured I had nothing to loose as I would only have to throw them out anyway if it didn't work. Thankfully as you can see they survived!

 As did my paisley fabric pair much to my relief. I think the things I am sadest about losing were my 2 vintage straw handbags, my recorder from school, (It was an extremely old woooden one given to me by my music teacher.) and my leopard print velvet platform shoes.
Whilst I'm at it some other happy survivors of the Milton's toothbrush cleaning!


9 comments:

  1. Ewww!!! Have you spoken to you landlord about the mildew? I would be - and if it could not be sorted I would be asking for a reduction in rent!
    But - that said - top marks on the salvage!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Haha, excellent! Love the green tartan too. How annoying about the mildew, my last house had a similar problem but nothing that extreme.

    ReplyDelete
  3. There were many problems with the house when we moved in and our landlady is eccentric and well, difficult at the best of times. Lets just say I have learnt the battles to fight and the ones to step back from. Also to be fair we do seem to have to mildew under control these days.

    ReplyDelete
  4. How awful - I lost a ballgown (I know, I know, but we seemed to have need of such things in the 80s!) to mould and it was traumatic. As you say, ventilaiton is key. Love the survivor shots - those blue platforms are gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sorry to hear about the mildew - that's awful!

    xoxo ~ Courtney
    http://sartorialsidelines.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. Mildew attacked two of my suede hats so bad that I had to throw them away, so I can sypathise with your footwear nightmare! Great shoe/boot collection though!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you :-)

    I should confess that whan it comes to boots that is not the half of them!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow you have quite a collection there!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Mould I hate the stuff.After all teh rain here we had heaps too White vinegar is great to get rid of it and I am now collecting thse silica sachets that come iwth new things and are in tablet bottles I scatter them in my storage areas to try and stop things getting mouldy.,
    I love your collection and sad that you had to throw out your other treasures.

    ReplyDelete