Has your dog chewed the aglets off your shoelaces? Have they disintegrated due to repeated retyings and re-tightenings? Do you want a fun way to decorate your shoes?

Make your own aglets!

All you need is colored thread, like embroidery floss, a shoelace, a box of matches, and scissors.

I am not going to reinvent the wheel, so I will tell you that all you need is a knot called the Sailor's Whipping. When you burn the ends of the shoelace or string, don't set it on fire, but scorch it a little, so the polymer that the string is made of will melt and secure the end of the shoestring

The key to making an aglet is the tightness of the whipping string. The tighter you make it, the stiffer the knot gets. This is important, as you are going to shove it through an eyelet. If your shoe is worn enough, chances are the eyelet is a bit broken down, too, so you will need all the help you can get.

You could say, "Why should I wrap it if I can just burn the end of the shoestring?" Well asked. If you only burn the end, the rest of the string is a limp noodle, no good for shoving throug a hole, especially a bit of a frayed one. The Sailor's Whipping makes the string stiff so it can be more easily shoved. This is the virtue of the original aglet on your shoestring (that is now disintigrated).

I have always wondered how to deal with a shoestring that has gotten too long through repeated tying. Now I know. And now you know. Practical fashion at its finest!