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

The gentleman's detour: Balmoral boot.

While I'm mostly posting about making women's shoes, I've still a soft spot for gentlemen's shoes. Right now, HBO's incredible series about an american town and it's villain leader, the Boardwalk Empire inspires the hell outta me. It's filled with glorious dresses and shoes. And atmosphere. So I've had an itch to make a pair of balmoral boots for myself. Balmoral is basically an oxford cut boot, and dates back to the victorian 19th century. It's still a part of men's fashion, though maybe more concentrated on the more expensive dress shoe category.

Niina and Saku are coming for a visit in Helsinki on saturday, and I'm currently quite horrified and uncertain of the mockups's fit. Actually I'm quite sure she won't even get them on. Oh well, It's all the more experience for me ;) Also, tomorrow I'll order a pair of lasts for those knee high black heels.

First some shaping of the lasts to my measurements.

And some pattern drawing. It's quite a simple model but does have it's own tricks to make it fit the last.

After drawing patterns, cutting leathers, sewing uppers, making the insole, lasting and building of  a fake sole, they came out like this. Looking groovy!

They're a bit funny looking on me because of their length. Maybe I'll make em shorter?