How to Build Shoe Insoles

You may wonder what to do with the inner tubes from old tires laying about your garage. It's frowned upon to burn them in your backyard. Think of Springfield's perpetually burning tire pile and you can understand why. Do some good for the earth and yourself: Build shoe insoles. For you, it'll be Earth Day every day.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Inner tube
• Scissors
• Paper
• Marker or chalk
• Tape (double-sided or regular)

1. Cut an inner tube from a tire with scissors. Cut very carefully up the middle on the outside of the tube, then width-wise. When finished, you should have one, long flat piece that you can lay on your work surface.

2. Place your bare foot on a piece of paper. Trace around your foot with a marker or chalk.

3. Cut the around the outline of your foot with a pair of scissors. Place double-sided tape on the bottom of the outline of the foot. If you do not have double-sided tape, make a loop with your tape and affix it to your pattern.

4. Place the paper outline of your foot on the flat piece of inner tube. Press firmly down to make the tape stick securely.

5. Trace around the paper with a marker or chalk. Remove the paper, then cut around the marks you made with scissors.

6. Fit the shoe insole you built into your shoe and test the fit. You may find that you need to trim the shoe insole to improve the fit.

Tips & Warnings

• * It is always better to make the shoe insole a little big to start, then trim it down.

Resources

• These scissors would work well
• Colonial Tailor's Chalk has good tailor's chalk