motorharp | Test shoes take 1

Or: Can I remember how to make shoes two years later?

I had an idea in my head of what I wanted the shoes to look like - a side lacing ankle boot out of green corduroy!

I finished shaping my lasts at the end of May. I just took a little off the toes to make them shorter.

I also went through my fabric at the end of May, and this is maybe where I got the idea I wanted green corduroy shoes?

Who knows. I'm certainly not keeping track. Now that my fabric was organized, I pulled out the above three fabrics as potential shoe candidates. From left to right: the very last little bit of upholstery fabric from my chair project; a not-great soft leather that is grey on the hair side, but a wonderful tan suede on the other; and the lower legs from a pair of green corduroy pants - origin unknown, but I definitely had it in the mid-90s.

I finished designing a pattern by the end of June.

The first iteration, made out of paper pieces glued together and wetted to form around the last, seemed to have a lot of stress points. I also realized I might need a center seam in the top quarters, which I didn't want.

I made two more iterations of the pattern. From right to left: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and my last. No, not the last pattern, the last. The shoe last. Nevermind.

The pattern is... not great, but I thought "maybe it will look different in fabric?" "Maybe I should not try it in the green corduroy I'm so excited about?"