Hello! I’ve finally finished these black leather clogs; that have been on the go for nearly a whole year now…. eeeeek!!
these soles are the ones on the left; the ones on the right went on to become my teal suede wedges
The last time I went down to visit Mum and Dad: Dad had some pinewood he’d cut himself from a “weed” pine on their block… and he very kindly helped me to shape the blocks on his bandsaw, and have the use of his sander to do some further shaping while I was down there… I’m so lucky that Dad has all the perfect equipment for this!
me making the soles in Dad’s amazing, treasure-chest of a shed; and yes, I made my entire outfit… those red shoes that don’t “go” at all were some of my very earliest oxford shoe-making efforts. They held together ok for a few weeks, then I made the mistake of walking through very wet grass in them one day, they got completely sodden and, sadly, never recovered from that dreadful, fatal experience 🙁 The silver lining is that that little disaster galvanised me into doing more research and getting more serious about making sturdy, tough shoes that could take the hard knocks.
Once I got home, I sanded down the soles even further, stuck some cork to the bottom and the heels, and applied five coats of satin varnish. Ohhh, wait, getting ahead of myself… before that, I’d fancied the idea of a nice deep, chocolate brown wood, I thought it would play off nicely against my chosen black leather. So I bought some walnut stain and gave them a coat. They looked um, not good, but I persisted (“maybe they just need MORE of it” famous last words) and did a few more coats. Then they looked DREADFUL. A day or so of deep depression later, and I’d regained the energy to set up the sander again and sand it all off. THEN I did the soling/ varnishing thing to my clean, new soles. *sigh* Lesson learned; wood looks better in its natural colour.
Now for the design of the uppers! I absolutely LOVE my other clogs, and basically wanted something very similar, just in the very useful colour, black. So, they’re pretty much identical except that these are engineered to the hilt and will certainly last a lifetime. They are like bullet-proof tanks, the Sherman Tanks of shoes, if you like! My other clogs have been pretty sturdy too, but I did have to repair/reinforce bits of them during my Year of Handmade which taught me more lessons about what counts when it comes to shoes. Firstly, that all the strain on a pair of shoes like this is right on the inner nail closest to your ankle. I lost two nails from that area on my previous clogs that had worked loose without my noticing, and also the fabric even started to rip a tiny bit in that spot (horrified gasp… NOOOOOOOO!) so I reinforced the area on both shoes by glueing on a piece of thick canvas underneath the overfoot strap, and then hammering it back down firmly in place with the nail in question dipped briefly in glue first.
But; anyway, back to these shoes! The uppers are made of thick, strong, upholstery leather. This was a small piece given to me by my kind neighbour, Megan. The front bit is lined with chocolate brown synthetic suede, from the Fabric Store, the same stuff I’ve used to line most of my shoes, including my winter boots. It’s great stuff! The skinnier, over-foot strap, that really takes the brunt of strain, I’ve lined with black, real suede, cut from the precious small piece that I bought from Bilby Yarns, also used to make these oxford shoes… this suede was tanned in the Fremantle Tannery before it closed down, forever (sob!) The strap that goes around the back of my ankles is simply wide black elastic. I found with my other clogs that I rarely can be bothered to undo the snaps to put them on, I tend to just slip the clogs over my feet. So, I dispensed with all closure and just went the elastic route. I glued another, further piece of the real black suede under the vulnerable overstrap area, covering and enclosing the edge of the elastic. Then I punched holes all round each piece, using my Danish hole punches that I bought in Skindhuset, Copenhagen, for the very first time!
and double sewed all round by hand, using chocolate brown upholstery thread.
The final step was to drill holes and nail the uppers down to the soles.
give a girl a power drill… *
*riff on an equality slogan from the 80’s… “give a girl a spanner”
And they’re done!
I’m so completely over-the-moon happy with these! I know they’ll be very sturdy and tough enough for anything.
Also, did you notice my “tattoo” in the first pic? that was my lame little April Fool’s Day thing today…. but it’s funny, I did it just for fun but you know what?!? I actually quite like it! I think if I was to even consider getting a tattoo, which I probably wouldn’t, I’m not really the sort, but thinking in a fantasy sort of a way here; THIS would be my choice. It’s my cure-all advice to myself for any time I’m feeling a bit down, and written in my own handwriting obviously. It’s really very very me!
Zoe approves…
