A new pair of 16th century shoes for Brigid T. I’ve continued my trend of making the insole smaller than the last, and I think that it is really paying off. You can really see a bit of overhang on the toe, although some of the period examples (especially in the later 16th century) were even more so. A lot of this has to do with the last, though I suspect that making the insole yet smaller still might produce a similar result. Bows not shown, as I tend to tailor them to the person or let them punch the holes themselves for the best fit.

A new pair of 1580s pumpes, dyed a forest green and bound along the opening with natural goat, which ends up looking a bit gold. Combine a pair of ivory laces, and you have a great looking pair of shoes – what I find particularly attractive about these shoes is the way that the welt and outsole “tuck in” under the upper. If you look at many (nearly all) of the extant and pictorial evidence, this is very typical. In later 16th century shoes, the toe even overhands the sole by a large amount, and in many cases, it is the same all around the outsole itself; so much so that the wearer is practically walking on the upper.

The toe definitely overhangs the outsole a bit, and the edge is tucked in underneath the upper a bit. Some of the shoes and pantofles are actually quite extreme – almost half an inch or so under the toe. The parts that makes this difficult is gathering all of the leather at the toe to tuck it under, but by no means is it impossible.
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A new pair of bound shoes. On these, I made the insole smaller about 3/16″ all the way around so as to draw the stitching in a little. It worked a bit, but was not significantly different from other attempts. On the next pair, I’ll definitely go to 1/4″ and give it a shot. Also, I must apologize for the poor picture – from this point on, you have my word that I’m going to take better pictures and not simply slack off with a cell phone picture.