Quick tie your shoes it is time to go to school!  Why are your shoes always untied when you get off the bus? Did you walk around school with your laces dragging all day?

Untied shoes can be dangerous, there is no support in a pair of athletic shoes if they are constantly untied. Kids dont want to stop and tie their shoes when the are playing a game or running with their friends at recess, I remember bully kids trying to step on untied laces to trip kids when we were kids. I was so tired of seeing my daughter walk off the bus with one shoe untied and thinking how unsafe that is that I decided to fix it for good.

Sure you can buy elastic or no tie laces online for 9-15 dollars but you can fix them yourself for less than $2.

1. Go to a craft or sewing store and pick up some 1/4 inch braided elastic, I bought mine at Walmart and it was under $2 for 3 yards.  I can do at least 3 pairs of shoes with this.

2. Pull out the old shoe laces, throw those germ infested things away. (They have been dragged around the gross school bathroom floor and all kinds of kid cooties that live on school floors!)

3.  Use a handwork knitting needle (also available at a craft store) to thread the elastic through the holes. If you don’t have this, you can use clear tape to form a point or temporary aglet.

4. Lace up both sides of the shoes, make sure the elastic is not twisted, I prefer to go over the sides of the shoes and have the elastic end on the underside of the shoe.

5. Using a needle and thread sew the ends of the elastic so they are folded one on top of the other, I sewed all the way to the end where I trimmed the excess off.  I wanted to hide the unfinished edge under the bottom edges of the shoes.

 

6. Trim off the excess elastic.

7. Finish the other shoe- your done!

Your child wont come home from school with untied shoes, they wont have to stop playing a game to tie their shoes, and they won’t have another kid step on their untied laces, trip, fall and get hurt.    It took me about 5 minutes to do this project, I am already excited for the saved time each morning waiting for my kid to tie her shoes!

p.s. For those of you worried I am handicapping my child by giving her elastic laces, I taught her to tie her shoes, she can do it. I am not worried about her going to college without the ability to tie her shoes.