Shoes - counters and uppers

[motorharp]

So far, my favorite part of shoemaking has been shaping the lasts.

Lovely lasts

After a brief hiatus, and while still designing my swimwear, I'm ready to start forming the uppers on the lasts¹. Loomis indicates everything from here on out is hand work and can be done at your leisure. Here's everything I need. Oh, except the counters, which are mentioned in the list of materials for this next step, and instructions are in the appendix. So there's an extra step.

The original counters I took out of the shoes are of a stiff, non-woven interfacing material. This procedure has three layers of buckram cut on the bias, wetted and shaped around the heel, then stiffened with Aleene's Fabric Stiffener. Each layer is put on and allowed to dry. The actual shaping took 15 minutes, and dry time was about 5-7 hours each, so it's a good thing to do overnight, or when you have other projects going on.  Or at your leisure, as Loomis says. :)

You also use aluminum foil to cover the heels so the buckram doesn't stick to your lasts. I was concerned about the bumpiness of the foil causing bumpiness in the counters. We'll see what happens!  And they sure are stuck on the foil, so I think I'll be picking that off for a little while.

Then, I'll be ready to form the uppers.

^{1. This hiatus also gave my lasts time to fully dry, and I'm much more comfortable handling them now.}