At the Shop

I clicked the lining for the Silver Wingtips yesterday…

…and here are the pieces.

I’m using a fairly stiff lining leather to compensate for the stretchy silver leather. The pattern might look a little strange, as in too short, around the tongue, but there’s a reason for that.

Here’s a very staged photo showing the continuation of the broguing process.

Lots of little holes.

More or less where the pieces will be.

Now I’ve got to sew all these pieces together…

I started the long process of adding broguing to the uppers for the Silver Wingtips yesterday.

Toe caps are finished, so much more to do…

I made a little progress on the uppers for the Silver Wingtips yesterday.

I’ve clicked out the piece, now I need to add some broguing.

I probably shouldn’t post such an unflattering photo of any shoes I’ve made on this blog, but this is of test fitters doing exactly what they’re suppose to do, showing problems.

Ok, so first, please ignore the crappy construction of the uppers. I’ve got a million really good excuses about those. Hey, they’re only test fitters.

Moving on, the most obvious issue is with spreading of the topline at the lacing over the tongue, which is easily corrected with a build-up of leather on the cone of the last in order to make more room for the height of the foot.

The little toe of the customer is also being squished a little, so I’ll need a build-up on the right last there. Perhaps a small build-up on left last for the big toe too, and a little more support in the arches.

Starting work on the uppers for the Silver Wingtips this week. Hopefully more to show in the next few days.

Cork soles have been attached…

…and the test fitters are finished!

There were a few other steps before that, but nothing new, just simplified. A lot of work for something that will be worn for only 5 minutes. Perhaps I’ll document the process more with the next pair of fitters I’ll be making.

And now we wait… Won’t get to see how well these fit for a week or so.

I made these uppers for a pair of test fitters in a rush before I went down to Portland to help with the class last week. I thought that I would have some time to last them while the students worked on their shoes. I was wrong!

Since these are only test fitters, I’m using some old fiber board for the insoles that I more or less saved from being thrown into a dumpster.

A view of the bottom of one of the shoes while lasting.

and the lasted test fitters.

Next step is to glue down the uppers to the insoles and then attach a cork soles to these.

I can already see that I’ll need to make some alterations to the pattern, but that’s one of the reasons for making a pair of test fitters.

Today was the final day of the beginning shoemaking course and I hope that all the students are proud of the huge accomplishments they made this week!

More later… I’m exhausted… but I’m sure the students are even more so.

The students attached fake welts and soles and have started to build up heels on their shoes. Tomorrow will be an incredibly busy day. Lots of work still ahead and the shoes have to be finished by the end of the day.