Hi!
Remember this?
Maybe not, but they're my first knee high boots, that are still under work. The one above is a model the client sent me. Well, not knowing where I'm poking my nose into I actually agreed to make them. Now that I'm in a final phase before making the actual shoes, I can really honestly say it's been one big headache - in a pain stakingly teaching way.
One would maybe think that it's just simple and easy to make a pair of knee high boots with only a zipper opening. One would maybe think that one just takes measurements and just make some basic patterns and cut some leathers and voilá! They're ready.
Well not quite.
It's hard enough for a shoemaker to make a fitting last, but to top that with another 40 cm worth of strange asymmetric curves. It's easy to make straight tubes with patterns, but as the leg is actually far from a straight tube, to transfer those shapes to the patterns... a headache. ;)
Let's take a look at my progress:
 |
| Attempt Nr.1: I was very proud of myself to last these :) The front upper is one piece. They look great, but as you can see they fit less great. You can see from the picture on the left that the shaft is too much backwards tilted, hence at the fitting we saw those ugly wrinkles in the front. Back to the drawing board. |
 |
| At my studies in Sataedu, I tried to find a solution for this problem with the consultation of a great Master modeller. But after a few days of trying, I found that this kind of a cut would require a technique too difficult for me to start trying now: crimping. |
 |
| Attempt Nr.2: So I had to change the model altogether: I had to make a seam all the way on the front to give absolute control on the shapes and degrees of tilt. I chose to make a false "pump" cut to the lower portion, as this would give more elegance to the design, and would make the broad foot look smaller. You'd think from the right picture that they fit quite nicely. Far from it: The zipper was so tight it didn't close all the way up, the bunions had painful seams going over them, the outer side of the ankle had a lot of wrinkles as did the zipper, and lastly the upper part of the heel was quite unfitting. |
 |
| Attempt Nr.3: With many fixes made to the last pattern, these came out quite good, only a few small things are left to fix. I think I'm quite happy :) |
