Bootmaking 2: The Sad, Sad Conclusion

It has been a very long time since my last post; very long indeed since the bootmaking prequel. 

But I've been delaying because I was holding out hope that I would get the pictures. Sadly, in the course of moving and the pics being on someone else's camera, they were lost. Forever. And since I had to leave the boots themselves in Africa there's nothing at all to show you lovely people. 

Manly tears.

To continue with the process though, after sewing all the pieces together I put grommets in for laces and sewed the uppers to the soles. I think the soul sewing was my favourite part of the project. It was interesting seeing how the shape changed as they were sewn to another different shape.

By this time we were getting very close to the move so I hadn't the time to sew the tyres on myself. Dad and I went to town one day near the bus stop where they cut up tyres to make sandals. We picked which tread we wanted and then the Fundi traced the shoes and cut the rubber. We left them with him for a few days while he sewed them together with a very heavy duty needle (imagine sewing through a heavy SUV tyre). He did a good job and the shoes were done.

They looked something like this

Seriously though, I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. I wore them for about four hours one evening; there were a few spots that needed broken in, but they would have been quite comfortable with oil and wear I think. The two main mistakes were (1) the toe profile looked weird, and (2) the sides (that the laces bring together) were a bit far apart. I think they would have worn in though.

So there you have it. Believe me; I'm more disappointed about the pictures than you are. We can all be sad together

YouTube of the day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlMxk_n_klE&feature=g-like