Rock'a me baby!

Some randomness from days recently past:

1960's winklepickers with cuban heels. For men. I think they're way elegant. Many consider pointy men's shoes disturbing and vulgar, but let them scream to the comments. Or something.
This picture is hanging from a wall in Kankaanpää shoemaker school.

And here's the proof that goodyear welted, classic and elegant shoes were made for men. In Finland.

And a peek at what I do daily at my desk - at work: This here's some orthopedic shoemaking in it's finest :)
The furthest shoe has a plastic counter and a composite (whatever that means) toe cap. The toe cap has varying layers of carbon fibre and god-knows-what-fibres and they've been laminated on the last with resin, obviously to give extra protection to the toes. The only things I've done here are the heel counters, the insoles, the steel amputation spring below and the whitish rubber protection on the toe caps.

Here's the pair ready and lasted. They're actually derby shoes, but have a shield of somesort over the laces. I don't exactly know why, as the design and patterns are not mine. I just last them.
And a pair of magnificient lasting pliers from Minke, made in deutschland.

And the mockups I'm getting ready soon. I wanted to show this unattractive view of the difficulties one has to face when sewing a zipper on a knee high boot.

A great weekend to you all!

Nina's

Ladies & Gents! After several months of waiting and about 90 pure handmade working hours; I'm proud to present the newest creation by yours truly! A project for the amazingly beautiful Niina, from the fashion blog Nelliinan vaatehuone.

*Drum roll...*

Nina's

I think I was quite obedient to the original drawing, though some changes did occur. Naturally :)

Taken from her blog (28.2.2012): here.

Taken from her blog (26.10.2012): here.

Materials:

• Collar: Black suede with a black sheep nappa lining
• Bow: Black patent leather ring with black alcantara bows.
• Uppers: Cream white nubuck, Black patent leather.
• Heel: Black patent leather covered plastic heel.
• Sole: Vegetable tanned leather with an black 4mm rubber half sole.

What can I say? Well, I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome, being my first bespoke high heels... I'd say I'm REALLY pleased. There's a million little things that could've gone better, but then again a million little things that I learned. So that's a alot! 

I'll update images of Niina wearing them from her posts later on.
One can only say: Tally hooooo!

Studying the essence of a high heel

For those that missed my morning announcement on facebook; I'm currently having a three day educational period in Kankaanpää, as a part of my Master Shoemaker studies.
When I first came this morning, I had no idea what was going to happen. So I made a mistake by not bringing some high heel lasts or previous patterns I had made. Even though it was all awkward for me, my instructor quickly guided me to begin a test project from a pair of vintage heel lasts.

Let's see  what happened today:

This is the last. Now, I won't modify it in any way, just design something and eventually make it.  Luckily, they had some components ready: the heels and the insoles are ready :) which makes my work alot easier.

I'm currently not a big fan of pointy heels. Maybe that'll change some day?

As another proof of their antiquity: they've been cast on a wooden block.

A wooden filling inside a brass tube. You ain't gonna see this kind of construction anywhere anymore. These babies have to be nailed.

The insoles are an almost fit. Needs some tinkering.

This is the sketch I did. A full brogue oxford cut. Well planned is half done.

Next up was making the tape copy.

And that 3D shape transformed into 2D.

And this is waiting for tomorrow's mockup.

When you're fixing, do it right!

Ladies and gentlemen, for starters let's hit off with the marvelous rag time band:

Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks!

And after my favourite band of the moment, we'll take a look at why I decided to do changes for Niina's lasts:

Here's the before and after shots. On the left you'll see a normal last, but it's meant for normal pumps and low shoes, rather than boots. With red I've marked the lines in which the shape should approximately go, and on your right you'll see the changes made. Why? Well let's see below:

In the circle you'll see a close up of the fitting I did for Niina, and you'll also notice the creases that for along the shaft of the boot. This is because the shape of the last is too steeply shaped from the upper part of the heel, as you can see on the picture to the left. This position is fixed properly on the boot to the right. This will lessen the creases and also make the front part alot more good looking and sturdy.

I'll hopefully get to try the left boot on Niina's feet before actually starting the manufacturing, this thursday?
The black boots are also due to begin their journey towards completion tomorrow, so we'll see what's up with them later this week. Have a good one!

Making High Heel Boots - Part 4 The Fitting

With great uncertainty I sat in a tram, on my way to downtown. It was time to meet Niina and Saku for a fitting somewhere in Forum. The reasons for my uncertainty were clear: these were my first bespoke high heels, ever. I've taken a step into the unknown. An area where many shoemakers dare not step: fine ladies bespoke high heels. But my passion to take that step and defy my masters warnings was too great...
So there I was, sitting next to Niina, who keeps an amazing and popular fashion blog here in Finland, called Nelliinan vaatehuone. Our sushi's were eaten so it was time to learn the horrible truth: do they fit, or won't they?

Let's take a look:

I didn't go through this phase in my blog. I just mentioned about it on facebook: I actually made another version for the left foot. That means I drew the patterns again differently and added rubberband section to the mouth. I also cut new leathers, sew them, lasted, fixed the heel on and made a mockup outer sole. Lot's of work, but it was worth it.

While being quite unnecessary, I wanted to put a decent rubber on both of them. We had small surplus pieces, so they were perfect for this.

And this time I made a more astonishing looking bow :) You can see the rubberband insert underneath it.

And as a big relief, the boots were quite a perfect fit! I will have to do some changes to both the patterns and the lasts, but we're all set to start making the actual shoes. Maybe she'll get them before christmas ;)

Suurensuurella jännityksellä varattuna sovitin lauantaina Niinan saappaita. Kaikesta huolimatta istuvuus oli loistava, muutamaa tarpeellista pientä muutosta lukuunottamatta. Eli pian päästään tekemään lopulliset kengät valmiiksi! Cheerio :D

Making High Heel Boots - Part 3 The first mockup

Seriously, I'm so unsure about these lasts, that a second mockup is due for sure. It could of course be the voice of uncertainty, since it's my first bespoke high heel creation. Which is perfectly natural :)
Anywayhoo, today's program consists of first cutting away those individual pattern pieces from the basic design that my colleague Mr. Master Shoemaker Joonas conjured on the cardboard. Then it's leather cutting, leather skiving (=making the edges gradually thin, wherever needed), gluing & sewing and finally lasting these babies to see how they end up. It's ever so exciting!

First, I had to add more lines to the design :) Like allowances and such.

Here's a nifty tool: to copy the shapes from the design, you simply position another cardboard underneath it and start rolling that baby. Thus, there's a pattern waiting down under.

With necessary markings made, the patterns are cut out with a sharp knife.

And here's all the patterns and some leathers of which I'll do the mockup. A great chance to tryout that red handled clicker's (=upper cutter) knife. The ladies at our shop cut only with scissors, which is also accurate but more slow. Cutting your leathers with a knife is the traditional way to go and will save you a lot of time in contrast to first marking with a pen and then using scissors.

And all the pro's go: he's cutting from the neck!? Yes, dear fellow shoemakers I am. It's a mockup :)
Neck is usually not the best areas to cut your uppers from, since it has these dark stretch marks which you can maybe see in this picture. The best part of a cow is on the lower back and ass area.
On red, you'll see the stretching direction of the  leather on the neck area.
The blue arrows show the direction where we don't want the leather to stretch when compared to the pattern.

Cut away! The blade is amazing! Thanks cordwainertools :)

I took a traditional approach to markings as well: The small hole is made with a sharp spike.

Here's the whole family ready for skiving and sewing.

A close up of the skiving machine. The leather is fed from the left and it leans on the stopper. The foot is adjusted to the required skiving position and the rough stone pushes the leather towards that rotating round blade seen on the right.

Like so.

Voilá!

Some of the edges are contact glued to help sewing.

The glued surfaces are carefully placed together, and it's sewing time.

The shoe industry's special sewing machine with a pole base. This way it's easy to sew uppers which tend to have tight corners and shapes.

I wanted to try out a french fold on the upper part. A small but rewarding detail.

There it is, after 4 hours of manual labour.

A bow tie made with great haste ;)

Before lasting, I'll use contact glue to the upper edges of a heel counter, so I can put some carpenter's glue in between. This way I'll have them hard and durable.

The toe part needs a stiffener too.

Before lasting, the toe cap get's some carpenter's glue.

And it's a wrap! This image tells quite well how the uppers are stretched and attached to the bottom.
For those unfamiliar with the concept of lasting, check out my earlier post about the same subject: here.

Here it be. I managed to accidentally put the zipper to the outer side of the shoe. Oh well,  luckily it's just a mockup.

Back view.

View from the inner side. The cuts need some tweaking.

What say you? ;)