Styling Trick - Put it on Ice

Its not going to be often I put an image of something as un-glamourous as a sandwich bag on this blog, but this amazing trick requires one so Im afraid here it is.

(image via)

In order to ramp our glamour factor back up to 10 here are the gorgeous YSL tribute sandals.  

(image via)

I'm using these as an example as they are the very shoes that a super stylish friend of mine is wearing to the BAFTA's this year, however they are a little too tight.  Not fun.

These need to be stretched a touch and here is how.  Take two sandwich bags and fill them about a quarter of the way up with water and seal them tight.  I seal them closed and then tie them up just to be on the safe side, then tuck the little bags of water into the ends of the shoes.  Pop them in a carrier bag and then put them in the freezer.  WHAT, YSL Tributes in the FREEZER?!?  Don't panic, they will only be in there until the water has frozen into ice, although I leave them about two hours.  Take them out and leave the bags of ice to thaw slightly (about 15 minutes) slide them out of the shoe and Ta Da! The tight pinchy bit of your shoes are now approximately half a size larger! (the stretch differs depending on the amount of water you use).

This works best on plain leather shoes, be very careful of getting water on suede and when using this trick on patent leather keep a close eye throughout the freezing process to prevent cracks (very unlikely but super annoying if it was to happen).  This works on kids shoes and mens shoes too, just use your eye to judge the amount of water to use.

Now you can go and grab those fabulous shoes you bought in the sale but are to tight to wear* and stretch those beauties out in time for the weekend.

*Come on, admit it how many pairs of those do you own?