I’ve finished the next coupla components in my 1 year 1 outfit project!
First up; shoes!
Following the same formula that I used for my previous two pairs of shoes; these have a carved wooden base and a fabric top. For the soles I used Western Australian pine from Bunnings.
I actually had several pieces of wood from which to choose for this project; my Dad had given me some marri from their block; and I also, albeit briefly, considered jarrah as another truly Western Australian product. Also, my brother had given me some jacaranda logs from when he had to lop a branch from the tree in their back yard. But I eventually decided to go with pine … why? Well it’s the softest, lightest and easiest to work with! and our ancient old bandsaw has finally given out, meaning it was going to be a ginormous struggle to cut the marri or jacaranda or jarrah either on any of our other equipment. These are all pretty rock hard woods, also both marri and jarrah weigh a tonne and you’d only want very thin soles of it for a shoe. Pine was the path of least resistance. I have definitely not ruled out using the other wood that I have for future pairs of shoes though. I just need to get better at woodworking first 🙂
Craig helped me with the big cutting and I did the finer shaping using the belt sander, and hand-sanding out the heel groove and some grooves for the ball of my feet. I also carved my initials, just for fun 🙂
The upper is 100% Western Australian Merino wool felt; made from natural, undyed, white fleece and natural, undyed, handspun black sheep’s wool as outlined in this post. By the way; I incorrectly stated in my previous post on my dress that the wool I used for the felt was Corriedale, and I have since discovered that it was pure Merino wool, sorry! I’ve corrected the error in that post now. And am actually rather thrilled to be wrong, to be honest!
Anyway my black and white “plaid” was the thickest and strongest of the felts that I made, so I kept it for these more demanding of my outfit components. Sadly, I realised that it’s still not particularly sturdy and is probably going to stretch out pretty quickly :(( But I’ve devised a devious plan to cope with the inevitability of The Stretch, mwahahahaha… see that central seam running right down the top/middle? well as it stretches out I can just unpick it, cinch in the top seam a bit, trim and re-stitch. Simple! And when it has stretched out past the point of saving, which it will; then I can easily unscrew the screws from the sides, remove the whole felt top and substitute something sturdier like leather. Hopefully I can somehow find a nice piece of thick WA leather, so that my shoes will still be eligible as a 1 year 1 outfit piece!
OK: confession time… I did have to cheat on a few minor parts of this project; the glue holding the pine layers together is made in NSW, and the screws holding the felt upper to the wooden soles are made in *embarrassed whisper* China. I did investigate making these; and concluded that to make my own local glue and “nails” is both possible and achievable. You can make your own glue using boiled animal bones, sap, or milk and vinegar; and I could have made wooden “nails” using jarrah or pine dowel. And originally I was seriously gung-ho about doing just that; until my Dad and my husband advised me to get real.
You see, the wooden soles are honestly such a hugely time-consuming and difficult component for me to make that I really really wanted them to hold together firm and fast and be perfectly secure; and NOT EVER fall apart. A rank woodworking beginner like me could all-too-easily destroy my carefully hand carved soles trying to ram wooden dowel “nails”, with hot homemade glue dripping everywhere; and even then if I was miraculously successful; they could later on just fall out or snap at a moment’s notice. Which, according to my experienced father and my husband; is pretty darn likely.
And I would, um, yeah; be sad. Understatement of the year, right there.
Anyway, I went the route of properly manufactured wood glue and steel screws… but I just want to say, for the record, that I did investigate the 100% hardcore approach, and gave it serious and careful thought.
And I do not regret not going there either, not one little bit, sorry! You can only do so much!
What is more! I will also be gluing some thick rubber to the soles to protect them from damage. I haven’t done that yet, I plan to “show” them first in this virginal state. But I will.
Exhibit two; a bag!
And it perfectly matches my shoes, hehe. Isn’t that the old fashion must-do advice for a lady from the 50’s or something? I seem to remember reading somewhere that a lady would never dream of sashaying out with non-matching shoes and bag. Ancient stuff, I know; we definitely do not adhere to such a strict dress code anymore! But I had enough felt for it so here I am, totally regressing to the standards of a previous era.
ooo yea.
It’s just a simple, um, something-bag? A sort of rustic briefcase? I don’t know the correct term to describe this kind of bag. A fold-over, almost-envelope, with rectangular side gusset thingies to make it box-like. It’s all held together and decorated with blanket stitch. For the handhold; I cut and blanket-stitch edged three slits that line up with each other through all layers. Ta da! Simple, but it does the trick.
I like the way the felt is thick enough that it can stand up by itself… just.
I am toying with a few extra components for my 1year1outfit project, but minor things that may or may not come to anything. However, they may; fingers crossed. If all else fails, at least I do have a complete outfit now!
