above; a few of les outfits de handmade from this month. The whole lot can be seen here
So, my second month of wearing exclusively head-to-toe handmade clothing is up… how’s it going? well, still ticking along … 🙂
As predicted; clothes are easy, and so far so good on the shoe front, but winter shoes are still worrying me. I’m quite nervous as to how they’re going to hold up in wet weather. I’m appreciating now that I am VERY tough on my shoes, I do a lot of walking every day, and through rough-ish terrain on a regular basis too, and I rack up a lot of steps. My floral sandshoes have already bitten the dust and my red sandshoes are on their last legs… already!
The florals; I wore them in full-on torrential rain, they got completely sodden and filthy and after four days they looked like the dog had chewed them up (she hadn’t)… Binned!
Also, during the month, I went away to my parents’ place and wore my red sandshoes every day; they stood up OK to five days of walking in the bush, and they’ve had another coupla days of the beach and doing it tough in the rain too.. but they too got sopping wet and I can see they are not going to last much longer either. It’s that yoga matting I used for the lining in both of them, it’s just not very tough nor stable so I doubt I’ll bother with that ever again. Oh well, it was an experiment, that was a big fail, at least I know now for sure!
The good news is that so far my funny yellow tape shoes are promising to be OK in the wet weather…. *crosses fingers* I hope I haven’t jinxed them now…
Honestly, one thing I’m gaining is a huge huge HUGE appreciation for how tough wet-weather shoes have to be, as well as the difficulties of constructing them to be so. When you think about how even the cheapest and flimsiest of cheap shoes hold up so well to sloshing through puddles, in stormy and rainy weather, well it’s pretty impressive, really.
Anyway, I’m halfway through a pair of real leather shoes… finally! so I have high hopes that the fabulousness that is leather will make them all of amazing and awesomely tough and weather-resistant, just on the merits of that. HIGH HOPES… pinning them on you, leather. Please don’t let me down *hairy eyeball*
At least, if all else fails, well, those tape shoes are very easy things to make …. 😉
Oh, I love your shoe experiments and it is very interesting to read about your experiences. I am looking forward seeing your new leather shoes! With all of our makes, better materials end with better results. But yoga mats and tape are surely worth the experience you gained by using and recycling those materials.
I loved clicking through your outfits on Flickr. It’s so nice to see all these lovely pieces mixed and matched and worn and reworn. I had to click back to the blog a few times to read details on pieces I’d missed – I really love how you pair the red gingham dress with the white skirt, and the combination of the black-and-white striped skirt and your yellow tape shoes is stunning. I’m glad those are holding up! By the time this year is out, I’ve no doubt you’ll have worked out how to weather-proof your shoes. I continue to be impressed.
Fingers crossed for those leather shoes in the making — I hope they prove durable! It seems to me that you’re really just starting out the shoemaking journey and I imagine you are on your way to figuring out what makes a handmade shoe more resilient.
Shame about the disintegrating shoes but I think it was worth trying. However would you work out what to do otherwise. Hope the leather shoes turn out well.
On the clothes front you are doing brilliantly – lovely outfits.
Hey Carolyn!
It’s interesting to hear how you’re getting along! I’m sure those leather shoes will turn out great! I’m looking forward to your report 🙂
Well done on month two, so impressed by your shoe journey you have taught us all so much. Good luck with the leather.
As always, lovely outfits! The shoes are proving to be an interesting experiment and I’m sure you’ll never go back to buying them. Can’t wait to see the leather ones.
We are all very hard on our shoes and it is interesting to read how your shoes have worn. Can’t wait to see the leather version.
Not a fail at all; making those early shoes taught you about the shape you needed, and you started to learn how to manipulate materials to achieve that shape, and you gained confidence :). Gosh, I sound like old mother hen !
Haha! please feel free to mother hen away! I was glad of the confidence boost, thank you so much! xx 🙂
It is so interesting to follow along on your shoe-making journey and appreciate your keeping us in the loop of what you are finding that works, and doesn’t maybe work so well. Agree with Sarah Liz here too!! Can’t wait to see what you are making in leather! 🙂
are you making leather derbys … I can’t wait to see them?
Real leather? Okay. Big breaths. I know you will be stellar at this too. Stellar! Six outfits in one month. My head spins. And they are not all lopsided and wonky and hideous. Of course not, because YOU made them. Beautiful work.