This is the first time that I ever produced a pair of shoes at a war. The only things not done locally were the patterning, cutting, last tailoring, and dyeing. Everything else was done at war, and I also had the most excellent privilege of teaching others as they walked by and asked questions. Some even came to sit down to learn to make stitching cords and how to close uppers. Because of the teaching sessions, I finished these about an hour before they were due, and didn’t even get a chance to photograph the finished products!
You’ll forgive me cutting out the modern tent and vehicle in the background, I hope. That’s the shoemaking table on the left, with the shoes in progress, and my music stand and cocktail box on the right.
A pair of lovely brown shoes with contrasting binding, welted and with a single heel life. The red binding really pops in these shoes, against the brown backing. I don’t normally post construction pictures, but I’ve started to take some as I work, and I figured you might like to see them!
A weekend workshop to crank out some turn shoes. A lesson for next time – we built these in a period manner, which meant not lasting them like a 17th+ century shoe, cranked tight to the last and nailed in place. Instead, the shoe is tugged snug to the last and sewn on that way. Unfortunately, I did not advise my students to tug tight sufficiently, and many of them ended up being a half size or so too large. Knowledge to take on to the next workshop…
Remember that waxed calf I made in the previous post? Well, here are the shoes that were made out of it. I’m generally pretty pleased, although there were parts of the skin that were a little rougher than others, and no amount of buffing or waxing got those fibers to compress. Such is life, and the search for waxed calf continues…
