Well it appears to be snowing rather a lot today (hello blizzard that came out of nowhere!) so I'm stuck in doors and my penchant for showing you my crappy Christmas workmanship has no end. I recommend turning on the little playlist ipod thing to the right as it'll be a long one...
So the good news is I actually, somehow? finished my shoe! Of course I'll share with you all the steps etc and photos. The bad news is that FIT being FIT, they closed the shoe lab for the last week before the shoe was due in. Sort of critical timing there, but hell, who's to blame a school where students regularly vandalize its property (in this case some idiot decided to literally throw a hammer into the sanding machine, yeah I'd be a little angry too). Luckily I had made a practice heel the week before, unluckily it wasn't the shape or size I wanted, but it fit and did the job somewhat even if it wasn't my original plan (I'd still like to make a new one and change it). So here we go!
So the good news is I actually, somehow? finished my shoe! Of course I'll share with you all the steps etc and photos. The bad news is that FIT being FIT, they closed the shoe lab for the last week before the shoe was due in. Sort of critical timing there, but hell, who's to blame a school where students regularly vandalize its property (in this case some idiot decided to literally throw a hammer into the sanding machine, yeah I'd be a little angry too). Luckily I had made a practice heel the week before, unluckily it wasn't the shape or size I wanted, but it fit and did the job somewhat even if it wasn't my original plan (I'd still like to make a new one and change it). So here we go!
So we last left off I had finished lasting the lining and put a toe box and counter in. The next stage is lasting the upper, which involves stretching and nailing the upper to the sole bontex sole
When you reach the toe and ankle section of the shoe you have to do this little pleaty maneuver in order to get it as nice and smooth as possible.
As you can see it's pretty smooth and any wrinkles will be smoothed out when the upper is glued to the sole
Time to glue! Now at this stage the point of all those nails was to get the upper in place so we could glue more effectively. You have to remove each nail individually and do a small part of the shoe until you go around the whole thing and it's all glued down.
Lasted nice and smooth in the back...
and the front (As you can see I also sanded the excess down to try and reduce bulk...
Again you need a piece of leather for the toe area to filling in the gap where the upper material does not reach. At this point my teacher was rushing us to finish which was certainly not helping and as you can see a rushed shoe leads to mistakes like where I over sanded the upper and got part of the visible shoe >:(
And in the continued spirit of being rushed, I cut out my leather sole...
Painted it, glued and nailed it on
Wow almost there! Unfortunately in my hastened state I wasn't able to take photos of how I created the heel shape or made patters for the leather that would cover it but here is the finished emergency heel (remember the curves were supposed to be going in the opposite direction but alas no access to sanding machines means no new heel :(
And ideally I would love to nail that sucker of a heel into place but no shoe lab = no nails or vice to hold the last so that heel is glued with nothing more then Petronios cement and a prayer...
As you can see some evidence of my over zealous sanding (very sad face)
I then had to pry that last out of the shoe. Sorry lasty but you're no longer needed for this particular shoe! The shoe is now about 98% complete...
Now with the lovely sockliner (A piece of lining leather cut to fit over the Bontex) glued into place, my first shoe I've ever made is complete!
Just wish I could make that heel again...
Ideally in a produced version of the shoe the yellow trim would be turned edge and much prettier, not to mention I would have all the various colours of thread so the sewing would blend in.
All that trouble and you know what? Despite unfortunate sewing capabilities and wrong heel, I'm pretty happy!
So to celebrate after presenting our finished shoes, my good friend Kay and I went to The Roebling Tearoom Where I fooled around some more with my camera and enjoyed some delicious tea and breakfast! It is also sort of the ideal way I'd like my own apartment decorated. IT'S SO COZY!
Our tea came first (Can't remember what Kay had but mine was a delectable and more importantly CAFFEINATED Russian Breakfast (generally I'm a little bit more exploratory but I spend the whole night putting together a mood board so I needed it)
Followed by a spot of Brekky! Yumm!
The honey that morning was not being very co-operative...
So there we have it. Honey covered oatmeal. A fitting end to a stressful first semester. My friends have told me that I should post about the bags I made so I shall when I get a chance. But people, remember that I have 0 skill with the bags. None what-so-ever! Well that's a depressing end to an otherwise positive post so here's a little something to cheer you up: Hit it Antoine!
When you reach the toe and ankle section of the shoe you have to do this little pleaty maneuver in order to get it as nice and smooth as possible.
As you can see it's pretty smooth and any wrinkles will be smoothed out when the upper is glued to the sole
Time to glue! Now at this stage the point of all those nails was to get the upper in place so we could glue more effectively. You have to remove each nail individually and do a small part of the shoe until you go around the whole thing and it's all glued down.
Lasted nice and smooth in the back...
and the front (As you can see I also sanded the excess down to try and reduce bulk...
Again you need a piece of leather for the toe area to filling in the gap where the upper material does not reach. At this point my teacher was rushing us to finish which was certainly not helping and as you can see a rushed shoe leads to mistakes like where I over sanded the upper and got part of the visible shoe >:(
And in the continued spirit of being rushed, I cut out my leather sole...
Painted it, glued and nailed it on
Wow almost there! Unfortunately in my hastened state I wasn't able to take photos of how I created the heel shape or made patters for the leather that would cover it but here is the finished emergency heel (remember the curves were supposed to be going in the opposite direction but alas no access to sanding machines means no new heel :(
And ideally I would love to nail that sucker of a heel into place but no shoe lab = no nails or vice to hold the last so that heel is glued with nothing more then Petronios cement and a prayer...
As you can see some evidence of my over zealous sanding (very sad face)
I then had to pry that last out of the shoe. Sorry lasty but you're no longer needed for this particular shoe! The shoe is now about 98% complete...
Now with the lovely sockliner (A piece of lining leather cut to fit over the Bontex) glued into place, my first shoe I've ever made is complete!
Just wish I could make that heel again...
Ideally in a produced version of the shoe the yellow trim would be turned edge and much prettier, not to mention I would have all the various colours of thread so the sewing would blend in.
All that trouble and you know what? Despite unfortunate sewing capabilities and wrong heel, I'm pretty happy!
So to celebrate after presenting our finished shoes, my good friend Kay and I went to The Roebling Tearoom Where I fooled around some more with my camera and enjoyed some delicious tea and breakfast! It is also sort of the ideal way I'd like my own apartment decorated. IT'S SO COZY!
Our tea came first (Can't remember what Kay had but mine was a delectable and more importantly CAFFEINATED Russian Breakfast (generally I'm a little bit more exploratory but I spend the whole night putting together a mood board so I needed it)
Followed by a spot of Brekky! Yumm!
The honey that morning was not being very co-operative...
So there we have it. Honey covered oatmeal. A fitting end to a stressful first semester. My friends have told me that I should post about the bags I made so I shall when I get a chance. But people, remember that I have 0 skill with the bags. None what-so-ever! Well that's a depressing end to an otherwise positive post so here's a little something to cheer you up: Hit it Antoine!
