#shoemaking

Or, you’re a cheap bitch like me and have only basic materials at your disposal.

Hello, beautiful people~

Let’s create a shoe stay together.

(I’ve been corrected in my terms, it’s a shoe last. My bad if I confused any of you!)

Most every crafter has - Glue, water, plastic wrap, paper bags (or whatever you may have on hand,) and hot glue; That’s it, that’s your list of supplies. Perhaps a sharp instrument to cut away the mold carefully.

If you are like me, my crew is chronically shoeless. Shoes are expensive! I consider myself a decent seamstress though, so why not try shoe making? When doing this it’s a good idea to have a shoe “last” or a basic mold to help shape the shoes. I’m not a huge fan of handling my dolls every time I try and make something to fit.

Enter shoe lasts stays, the broke way.

First you need a volunteer. I chose the boy who had the bigger feet to basically provide a mold to all my other boys of similar size. This is Harper. His body is an April Story Senior. He’s got his pantlegs rolled up and he’s ready to go.

Let’s get messy now and act like we are in kindergarten. You want to make sure your doll’s feet are wrapped securely in cling wrap, covering a little above the ankle. We are going to paper mache over his feet. There are many recipes online for a mixture, but I personally use a mix of wood and white PVA mixed with a bit of water.

I alternated thin Kraft paper and paper towel for a couple of layers. Make sure each one is thoroughly dry before applying the next. Try and fill out some of the area above the heel and the arch as we want to keep this basic shape but not totally form fitting.

All dry! Now you need to carefully cut off the paper Mache. This can be tricky. Much like the paper Mache dress form we want to avoid doing damage to the doll during removal. Go slow and separate as necessary. I cut down the back of the leg and heel and about halfway down the foot. I was able to wiggle the mold off at this point.

Yay! Now that it’s off, try and ease the split back into place. I use tape as a temporary closure until I can go back and cover it with a final layer of paper Cache. You don’t have to, but I just like the clean look.

This last part is totally optional but I like to fill the cavity with some sort of firm support just to ensure the longevity of the cast. My doll forms are stuffed firm with yarn scraps and dryer lint. These though, I wanted something more solid. I’m not familiar with expanding foam nor do I have any on hand but what I DO have is hot glue. In the past I’ve made hot glue gems for some kids out of molds, so I know what I’m working with.

I cut the molds to an even height and started filling from the toe up to the arch. I let it cool in that upright tiptoe position for a bit before placing it flat and adding my little handle and filling it up to the top. I tapped them on the desk a few times while doing this just to make sure the glue settled firmly. I added handles just because, but you don’t have to. I used a cheap dowel.

Depending on what kind of shoes you plan to make (either soft formed or modern shoes with a formed toe) you can build up the toe areas to give yourself that sleek shape that modern shoes have.

Credit to @dollsahoy for adding on the buildup tip!

There you have it. Let the glue harden and admire your work. If you are going to use these to shape damp leather, remember to seal them with a water resistant sealant!

I hope this provides inspiration to someone.

Cheers and happy crafting.

I made shoes!

I started with soles from sneakerkit (they're not paying me). They come with stitch holes pre-marked, and the website has downloadable patterns/templates for the uppers with the stitch holes marked which makes all the assembly easy.

I wanted converse clones so I started with the "classic 3 in 1" design and adjusted it a bit. I made the ankles a bit higher (although not higher enough, in retrospect). And made the tongue piece extend further along the foot so that it overlaps the side piece without risk of gaps.

The examples on their website are all with single-layer leather, but I used two layers of canvas for each piece. Sew right sides together, grade seams, flip, and topstitch to secure.

Followed by a frankly unnecessary amount of extra top stitching.

I used Prym vario pliers to punch the holes and add the eyelets. It was physically quite hard work, but not complicated (and very satisfying).

I'm pleased with myself for remembering to wash the chalk marks off before I started assembling them with the soles.

I poked holes through the stitch marks on my paper pattern pieces, then used them as a template to mark pen dots on the fabric. I did the same on both sides so that I could easily see what I was stitching from both directions, but because the fabric pieces had strayed a bit from the pattern shape during assembly the dots ended up a few mm misaligned in some places. It seemed to work out fine though.

Assembly was a simple running stitch going all the way around the sole, and then back again to complete the stitch, using thick waxed cotton thread and a giant needle. The hardest parts were sewing through the tongue and side pieces together where they overlapped, and getting the needle through from the inside at the very end of the toe.

I was too scared to burn the ends of the thread even though that's apparently the proper way, so I just tied them off and tucked the ends back through a stitch.

Just add laces!

The stitching and raw edges are exposed on the inside with no lining, but the insoles pretty much cover up the actual raw edges so hopefully that will stop too much fraying. I could have turned in the bottom edges and topstitched them down to make it more secure but I didn't want it to be too lumpy inside the shoe.

Some more close-ups:

It was so scary trying them on, because they're such a complicated 3D shape there is absolutely no possible way to tell whether they'll fit until they're 100% assembled. But they do!

There's a couple of tweaks I'd make for next time though. Although I brought the ankle up a bit higher, it still wasn't as high as I like it. And I didn't bring the tongue up enough so the laces knot sits right at the top edge of the tongue instead of comfortable in front of it.

I also don't like how many eyelets there are. I just went with the sneakerkit template and used eight, but I realised afterwards that converse high tops only have seven, and the ankle goes up higher. They just seem unnecessarily closely packed to me.

Plus, the heel shape is a bit off. The sneakerkit recommended pattern has the pieces joined along the top of the heel, and then notched at the bottom to allow them to splay out, with the notch hidden under the tab sticking up from the back of the sole. But it was hard to get the angle of the pieces just right along the join, and the heel has ended up with too sharp an inward angle which doesn't feel quite right. Next time I'll try the converse construction style, with the sides as two separate pieces, and a strip down the back covering the seam.

If these end up too uncomfortable I might just cut a slit down the back, let it out, and cover it with a strip. Or disassemble them completely and try again with the two-piece construction method - because even though all the top stitching was laborious, they use such a tiny amount of fabric that I have loads leftover.

It is a LOT of fucking work, in the sense that it takes more raw strength than most shoemaking tasks, and I have to resharpen the awl every 1-3 holes, but it works!

I also got a drag knife and a rasp