Craig Corvin Seattle

Bespoke Footwear / Handmade Custom Shoes

I’m in the process of making a quick edge ink to finish the Gibsons with. Here are all the ingredients, except water:

Toe puffs have been placed, shaped with a rasp, and then the toes have been re-lasted on the Gibsons.

Preparation for lasting the Gibsons and the Chukka Boots.

Another year has begun and, after a hiatus of nearly six months, I’m back with a new workshop space and a new website design!

I had hoped to relaunch the blog with the new look last week, but had a few distractions that came up. I designed this new template to use some subtle CSS3 techniques and larger images since this blog is mostly in-progress photos. It’s meant for current web browsers, but hopefully if you’re viewing this using an older browser it depreciates gracefully. What do you think?

Picking up where I left off, I have two pairs that I need to finish (fortunately they are both for VERY patient customers…) and new orders that are piling up.

I finished making the uppers for the Gibsons yesterday. Here are a few progress photos of those.

Finished uppers for the Gibsons

Uppers for the Chukka Boots are next…

A few photos of the making of the uppers for the Gibsons.

The insoles for the Gibsons are ready. Still need to alter the pattern and make the uppers.

Some images of the preparation of the insoles for the Gibsons

Plastic bowl from Ikea, in case you were curious about what I use for soaking leather.

Making sure the nail is mostly centered, mostly.

Wrapping insoles onto the lasts with cheap elastic bandages still looks absolutely ridiculous to me, but it really does a great job of forming them. The pros outweigh the cons, but I’m open to other opinions.

While not as drastic as the Galosh Oxfords, the pair of Gibsons will also have some built-in arch support, which is why I’m wrapping them.

And yes, that’s sunlight… In Seattle! Finally we’re having some nice weather for a change.

And the results of the test fitting for the Gibsons:

Lasts are 95% there. A little build up addition on the right last around the little toe, and a slight bit more height on the cone of the left last.

The pattern for the uppers will need a few alterations. The topline at the heel needs to come up and in more for it to grab the last better, and I need to change the angle of the top of the quarters around the lacing. Brogueing has been requested on the edge of the quarters and the toe cap.

All in all, fairly good results.

The Test Fitters for the Gibsons have been made.

The lasts for these turn out to be fairly challenging, high toe shape profile and all.

I’ll post about the results of the fitting tomorrow.

The uppers are finished for making the test fitters for the Gibsons. Now I just need some time to work on them.

Here are the pattern pieces that I’ll be using to make a pair of test fitters for the Gibsons.

The outer pieces,

and the lining pieces.