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…
Let’s not forget the soles…
Continue reading 18th C. Shoes with Pseudo-Waxed Calf
A new pair of 18th century shoes for John E., done at stitch pitches of 12spi. This is some of the more fine work that I’ve finished, but by no means would it have been considered fine for the day – in fact, it would have been expected for properly constructed shoes from a master’s workshop. In any event, you may already have read the earlier post on a more correct pair of 18th century men’s shoes, and this followed the procedure similarly, aside from the stitch pitch. Some corrections were also made, which I noted there. I did not attach the tongue as a second piece, but rather continued it as part of the vamp instead. As far as I can tell, it really did not make much of a difference.
As mentioned, I ended up making much finer closing threads. I used five strands of 60/1 which is incredibly fine stuff, about the same thickness as two strands of my normal 16/1 or one 10/1. Clearly, more threads plied together make a stronger thread, hence my decision to go with the five strands.
Continue reading 18th Century Men’s Shoes – with improved stitching
You people. You PEOPLE! I know that this happened months ago, but I am only now getting around to writing about it. I wish I could say that the delay was because it was so absolutely magnificent (which it was), but in truth, I simply haven’t had a moment to dedicate to writing about this most excellent of events. As fortune turns out, the lovely and sublime Sarah Lorraine, featured in the picture below (and a total heartbreaker, as you can see) has written up an excellent post on the topic, and I highly recommend you visit her site, as well as watch the video of Jason Schwartzman hosting Cribs at Versailles.
This has been a fantasy of ours for quite some time, though the Palace of Versailles does not normally allow costumed guests on their premises. Here, everyone was required to dress the part, and what a spectacle we made of it.
Continue reading Europe Part II: 18th Century Ball at the Palace of Versailles
In preparation for an amazing trip (of which you will hear more about soon), I worked up a new pair of 18th century shoes. Similar to the ones I worked up a while back, these ones were actually for me! The basic pattern was similar, but I must note that as it had been over two years since I worked on that past pair, I made some rather newbie-type mistakes. I must also preface it by saying that I visited several museums just weeks after finishing this pair, and as is always the case, one discovers so many things that were done incorrectly. Refer to the original source material in all things! In any event, they look decent enough, though I can’t wait to get my hands on a couple of weeks to make another pair for myself, an even better pair.
One thing about this piece is that I attempted it in a manner consistent with what is described in Garsault’s 1767 work, the Art of the Shoemaker, translated and annotated by the master cordwainer Al Saguto at Williamsburg (available here).