Making High Heel Boots - Part 7 Closing

I've recently learned that "closing", in shoe manufacturing terms, means in fact sewing. Or to be more precise; many different phases in which all of the pieces of leather are prepared and put together (and sewn). The result is a neat package, ready to be lasted, and they're called the uppers. So closing means 'the making of the uppers', a phase which comes after clicking, a process which we looked at on my last post.

This week, I've had the fortune to spend a lot more time on making those bespoke high heels for Niina. And now it's time to continue the venture:

First up: a lot of skiving.

A closeup on the reason of skiving. Usually a skiving thread is hidden inside. This keeps the folding strong and  stretchless (is that a word? :). This is from the collar.

After folding, I added an reinforcing cloth for added stiffness.

The sewing came out pretty nice. I used size 90/14 needle and size 60/3 thread. The stitch is about 1,1mm long.

A close up on the lining. I was pretty pleased with these :)

The linings upside down and right way down.

Left shoe upper almost done.

A peek at the backside.

A second row of stitching attaches the lining to the upper. This proved to be quite difficult, as you'll see from the picture  below. I wasn't too pleased with the results. And to make things more difficult, with leather you'll get no second chances: if you stitch wrong it'll stay ruined forever. One can take out the falsely sewn thread, but the needle markings are left for everyone to see.

The boot had to be handled forcefully to get some close-to-decent results.

I didn't find a size 60 thread with a proper color, so I reluctantly used size 40.
I could do better with the sewing, too.

The collar down. It's ok.
There's a patent leather detail on the top.

Just waiting for lasting!

Making Ballerinas - Part 7 The insole

I'll make a mini post of this because the picture volume would've again been too much with lasting attached. Insole is a very important piece in a shoe, and you can find it basically from any shoe that's been lasted. The insole makes it possible to attach the uppers and lining beneath it, so this way it's possible to stretch them tightly on the last. This might not make any sense now, but it'll open to you soon.

Here's the lasts to the left, in the middle and right you can see the leathers and the  synthetic stiffeners. Below is a pair of strong leather scissors for cutting, since the leather and the stiffeners are about 3mm thick. Both the leather and the stiffeners are cut from bigger sheets.

The stiffeners are glued to the leather and the insole is attached to the bottom of the last.  The insole is then cut to the precise shape of the last, and final shapes are grinded as seen in this picture. The upmost picture has the insole attached to it before grinding, and the lower shows how I shaped the edges to be about 1mm thick at most. This way, when the uppers are pulled over the last, the shoes appearance seems a lot slimmer. I left the backside thick, so it's look better when finished.

And here's how they look from down up.

Strips of alcantara are glued to the whole back part of the insole. This way we'll have a neat look to them when they're ready. The lower insole is what comes next to the last. Then they're attached to the lasts and we're ready for some lasting.

Next up, some lasting.