Making my First Shoe: Part 4 - Prototype Construction

Out of the frying pan and into the fire

Things get pretty gnarly from here. I have a confession to make. Up until this point I had never used a sewing machine in my life and here I am about to use an industrial leather sewing machine :-/. Thankfully the prototype allows me to practice this skill a little bit before the real thing. Unfortunately I spent a whole 5 hour shoe class doing nothing but threading a machine, snapping the thread and re-threading the damn thing. Luckily we use pretty much the same machines in handbags and I was able to figure out how to thread properly in the next bag class (which I consequently spent the next 5 hours trying to figure out how to sew straight lines into a scrap piece of leather. Little tip: learn how to drive. I've never driven in my life and here I am flooring a sewing machine...

Back to the prototype.

One of the best things about FIT are the techs. In class they are the teachers assistants and can help you with anything! Our shoe tech Henry is a little bit of an FIT institution in himself and he helped sew the back of the upper together to bring to the back pieces together. From this point on it was all me. I started off sewing the first cap onto the second cap toe straight down onto the upper. I used binder clips to keep it all in place



Then I sewed the lower toe cap onto the upper by itself.


Baring in mind that I had never really used a sewing machine before I think the stitching is OK. Although as you can see the leather stretched as I was sewing which made the toe slightly asymmetrical.

The next stage was to sew the lining to the upper along the throat (the hole where your foot goes in). This part is particularly difficult as the upper is now much more three dimensional. Also I had found the machine I could sort of control the speed on (I lie I walked pretty much the entire thing) and it was a flatbed which isn't as easy to sew three dimensional objects.



Once the lining and upper were sewed together I had to put on the trim. Now the trim I got was very thin and my teacher explained that I should try and get another that is thicker so that I could wrap the trim around the throat. Also with such a thin trim it was very difficult to sew along the line especially in the parts of the throat that curved. But I think considering everything I did an alright job. Luckily the prototype isn't judged on sewing ability (but the real thing is. Yikes!).



At this point we had to create a pattern for the sole of the shoe. So diligently I taped the sole of the upper, drawing along the feather edge to create an outline of the foot.



Cut it out and traced it onto a piece of Bontex (the material used in most soles)



And nailed it to my upper.



At this stage you have to glue the lining onto the sole, sanding off any excess to try and reduce bulk.



Afterward you need to cook the thermoplastic toe and counter (back part of the upper) in order to activate them. This will allow you to stick it onto the toe and counter, thus reinforcing these stress points.



Once these have been glued in (wish I had taken photos but that thermoplastic is hot and tricky to use!) you have to last the upper and glue it onto the sole. As I had not sewn the two toe caps together and onto the upper I had to nail these into the sole. I also had placed the bigger nails (the ones that nail the sole to the last) right where I was lasting the upper so I had to pull them out through the sole.



Overall though I actually manged to create something that not only resembles a shoe but also my design! Don't worry the real thing will have a proper sole and heel.




As modeled by my friend Desiree

Things to change in the real pump:

• Get thicker trim to properly trim the throat.
  
• Sew the toe caps together too and maybe trim the bottom one a little to reduce bulk in the sole.
• Also when sewing the toecaps on use more binder clips to keep them in place and be a little more careful.
  
• Don't nail the Bontex in all the way and leave more space between the edge of the last and the nails.
• WALK THE WHOLE DAMN THING!

I had a wee premonition that I would complete the prototype in that class and wanted to have a particularly wanted to wear one of my new Paul Smith x Lola raffia pins as it reminded me of fireworks. My good friend Wax of Pop, Bop & Snap kindly did a mini-photoshoot in Soho and the results were these lovely snaps.

Details:

Uniqlo trench coat (with customized brass buttons), Uniqlo waffle knit henley, Thrifted Brooks Brothers gingham shirt, Alexander Olch tie, Paul Smith x Lola rafia brooch, Cheap Mondays jeans, Jil Sander flouro belt, Uniqlo socks, Paul Smith suede wingtips and Peter Pilotto x Kipling bag