Bootmaking 1

Hello!

So, the idea started from looking at Vellies, a traditionally made short boot from south Africa. But then I decided to design them a little more fitted and such (maybe complicating the design was a mistake though :D )

Here's my desk covered in leather stuff

So, the first problem was making a shoe last, the from around which the shoe is built. I could hardly order form a shoemakers' supply and carving wooden lasts would have been a huge task for me. I did some research and found a lady who makes lasts for making felt costume boots. What you do is (1)put on socks (2) wrap your socked foot in duct tape (3) cut duct tape sock off your foot (4) tape up the cut (5) and stuff it with plastic Walmart bags. It work surprisingly well!

After making my lasts I traced my feet and cut the initial soles out of thick leather

Here is a picture of the lasts with a pair of socks over them and the soles tacked onto the bottom

After I had tacked on the leather soles I had to pattern for the leather pieces. This was rather long and difficult and was easily my least favorite part so far. But I finally got that done and I cut the pieces for the leather uppers out of medium/thin leather. So now I'm slowly sewing all the pieces together.

Here's a picture of one's progress (it will look alot less strange when it's formed correctly, I hope). Despite appearances in the picture, they will actually be only just above the ankle.

What remains now is to finish sewing the pieces together, sew the uppers to the leather sole, wax the seams, install grommets for the shoelaces, and sew on a piece of tyre tread for the rubber soles

Ha, reading over this it sounds so easy compared to how it is!

So there you have it so far. :D

-Luke