Uncategorized Archives - Page 25 of 177

little yellow skirt; 6 different ways

08/06/2016 1:11 pm \ 30 Comments \ Carolyn

I found this post in my drafts, and came thisclose to deleting it but then hesitated… see, I stopped writing these 6 different ways posts because I started to worry they were boring to anyone reading my blog. But then I just thought that was silly. Because you know what? I just kinda like them. I like looking back on my old daily outfits, seeing my old favourites, what worked and what didn’t… and this little yellow skirt was a goodie that I got a lot of wear out of before I dyed it a different colour. And I think I might even compile a second 6-different ways post in the future for its new caramel incarnation because it’s been equally fab as a caramel skirt too!
I made this skirt in yellow corduroy using Vogue 1247 and posted it here; and then proceeded to wear it A LOT, it seemed to work really well with a lot of stuff. These outfits are ranged from summeriest for the first picture through to winteriest for the last. It was better as a winter skirt, being corduroy, but was ok on cooler spring/autumn days too, when it made a nice sunshiny splash on a nice sunshiny day. I’m almost wondering why I dyed it!! but I just remember being a bit sick of it and since it turns out that I love it even more as a caramel skirt then I don’t regret dyeing it at all, of course! Although maybe, just maybe I need another yellow skirt in my life… *wink*

Most of these pictures are from a time before I was making my own shoes, however one outfit, the top right one with the orange top and blue denim shoes is an entirely 100% self-made outfit; since I did make those shoes! All items of clothing are made by me… I haven’t put in any links but any questions as to individual items seen in these pictures please ask in the comments and I will supply pattern information as required 🙂

Posted in: fashion, Uncategorized \ Tagged: 6 different ways, skirt, Vogue 1247

the year of handmade, 3

23/05/2016 2:08 pm \ 13 Comments \ Carolyn

So I was wondering whether to do a me-made May summary, whereby I drone on about “what I learned” and all that blahdeblah, or to just stick with my schedule of a brief monthly update on my Year of Handmade.

Clearly, the latter won out, hehehe. Although I have been joining in with the me-made May crowd, and have the Flickr album over there to show for it, although to be honest, I feel like my year of handmade is a far bigger challenge, and the month of May is just a small chunk out of that particular cake.

Above is pictured a selection of my favourite 100% self-made outfits for the month; and actually, showcase quite a variety of my handmade shoe collection too. Six different pairs! Out of a total of fifteen, not counting the two pairs that have died. Okaayy. I’m mildly impressed with myself, actually. Who’d have thunk it? not me, that’s for sure…

So, what’s what? Well, of course the shoes do continue to be the challenge, the biggie; in fact I reckon are the only challenge for me, full stop. I haven’t lost any shoes this month, due to hard wear or weather or inappropriate choices for the given activity or anything (phew) but I’ve had to perform some running repairs. I’ve found superglue to work in a pinch and in tight spots, but ultimately contact gel adhesive is the best.

Anyway, minor celebrations are going on, albeit just in my head! since….

I’m a quarter of the way through! WOOOT! I’m pretty excited about that, feels like a bit of a milestone. That’s autumn polished off, though I’ll admit autumn is a pretty non-demanding season, shoe wise. Winter is going to be the acid test. Eeeeek.

The entire collection of my outfits so far can be viewed here…

Posted in: fashion, Uncategorized \ Tagged: year of handmade

teal suede heels

08/05/2016 8:37 pm \ 32 Comments \ Carolyn

Heels!

I’ve made some high heeled wedges, specifically designed in colour, shape and height of heel to go with my newest Alabama Chanin outfit. Hurrah! I know, right? we can all breathe a sigh of relief now. I’m sure everyone else, just like me, has been lying awake at night, tossing and turning, losing sleep over the thought that I didn’t have any shoes that went with that Alabama Chanin ensemble. Nail biting stoof.

No? Just me then? wink wink

I didn’t have any fabric or leather in a colour that went well with my outfit; until…! While browsing through Spotlight one day, I spotted a pack of so-called premium leather remnants, the “leather” side is black but the “suede” side was a rather beautiful shade of deep oceanic teal. I thought it went very nicely with the blue/green shades of my newest onn-sohhm-ble (said in an ott Frawnch accent). So I bought a bag.

Well.

What was I thinking? All I can say is this; under no circumstances ever buy those “premium” leather remnants in a bag. Unless you really wish to pay $12 for a raggedy scramble of what is essentially awkwardly shaped, screwed-up scraps, typically around 4x15cm in size, barely big enough to make babies’ shoes, even. And if you’re making shoes for an adult human? nope! Premium?! LOL! I would LOVE to see the not-so premium stuff!! It must be heeeeeeeeinous!!! Because; not to harp on, but this stuff is crap. However. I steeled myself to it, determined to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear. Or, a polyester satin purse, at least. I was determined to NOT waste this leather and make the best of it that I absolutely could… but I do have to admit that these shoes are not my finest hour. This was the absolute best I could do!

Some of my most successful shoes have been my denim shoes; that are a hand carved balsa wood base covered with fabric. I decided to repeat that procedure for a pair of high wedges.. and so I hand carved a pair of soles. These turned out fine, all well and good.

balsa bases at right; at left is another future pair of pine clogs

Covering the bases, I used the absolute biggest pieces of scrap leather I could glean from my bag of paltry clippings… the colour wasn’t perfectly even throughout, some pieces were a deep deep oceanic blue, while some pieces were more of a faded, smoky grey/blue. I’m not against colour variatio, not at all! but they certainly make for more of a challenge. And when you’re piecing together pieces to cover a shoe base, it just doesn’t look so good to abut different shades around the shoe. You can see below; the liner of the right shoe is two pieces of very different colours, joining just front of the heel. I figured that wasn’t a bad spot for a join, because it couldn’t really be seen when I’m wearing it, underneath my foot there.

For the uppers; there are eight strips of leather per shoe, sewn at each end to a piece of sturdy cotton denim that is glued underneath the suede liner piece.

The eight strips form “arches”, which had to be tight enough to sit snugly over my instep, whilst at the same time still allowing the frontmost, widest part of my foot to fit through all the arches while I’m putting them on. This took some fiddling to nut out… also, the straps are essentially woven together across each other and so there are some straps that are key to the design, the middle one across my toes, the two long diagonal ones and one of the highest instep straps. These four provide the stable backbone for the others to be woven into and are essentially holding everything all in place. I then added the others more randomly, arranging and weaving them through decoratively, but they do also add strength.

Now, I say “random”; I’m all for random, but I’ve found that true randomness is more visually pleasing when there is some element of order and method in there somewhere. I like the fact that the strips appear to be a disordered riot of criss-crossing strips; however the shoes are actually exact mirror images of each other with the strips set in exactly the same places to each other. But when I put them on I do have to “arrange” them all! Underneath the shoes, I’ve glued pieces of thick, tough black rubber, so the shoes can stand up to the rigours of life on da streetz.

So, yay! new shoes! They are just the right height to go nicely and unobtrusively underneath my new Alabama Chanin skirts, keeping them up and out of the dirt. I think the skinny straps look quite nice against the design of my outfit; matching but not too derivative, in a harmonious colour; and a design quietly complementary while not stealing the show away from my embroidery! Bam! I’m happy 🙂 well, reasonably so anyway! And they will do absolutely fine, at least until my Year of Handmade is up and I can return with some joy to the undoubtedly more attractive rtw shoes in my collection!

Posted in: shoes, Uncategorized \ Tagged: alabama chanin, own design, shoes

olive leather desert boots

03/05/2016 3:19 pm \ 42 Comments \ Carolyn

I’VE MADE SOME REAL LEATHER BOOTIES!!! (screams hysterically and with a certain stunned disbelief)

And I’m sooooo happy with them, finally 🙂

Leather; I bought both the olive/tobacco brown leather and the coloured leather strips for laces from a leather shop in the Nippori district in Tokyo, pictured on the top, above with my other Nippori treasures. Do you like the variety of shoelaces? They’re pretty fun, yeah? I bought three different colours, hot pink, golden yellow and caramel/mustard. I’ve also got some store-bought, bog-standard black ones for them (below).

I like all of the colours, simply cannot decide on a favourite. Oh ok, of course I can! for now, I’m digging that bright pink, sorta unexpected, like lipstick on a pig 😉

oink oink!

Pattern; In shape and style they look just like my previous paprika suede desert boots, and so they should because I used the same pattern! The heels on these are lower than my paprika boots; that higher heel looks a little more refined whereas a lower heel is casual which I reckon is better for the slightly grittier tougher look of this leather.

they fit with socks too

Thoughts on construction: I did find the leather both easier and more difficult to work with… easier, because leather really is a far superior material to work with than synthetics; it does mould and form far far better to the shape you want it too, plus it “skives” beautifully, whereas plastic leathers and that paprika upholstery fabric does not. However, and paradoxically; I also found these shoes to be more difficult to make than my paprika ones, because my leather was actually quite thick and less pliable than ideal. It was harder to sew; my sewing machine coped fine with it, but it was so stiff as to be difficult for me to manouvere it around the sewing machine while sewing it. and stretching it over and around my lasts took more effort and grunt-power too. Being a leather shoe newb, I did not fully appreciate that it was not ideal until I was halfway through making the shoes, of course. Anyway, I think I managed to wrangle it into submission eventually.

The shoes are fully lined with chocolate synthetic suede, bought from the Fabric store in Melbourne during a past trip, and all topstitching was using chocolate brown Gutermann’s upholstery thread. I constructed the heel counter and toe puffs using stretch cotton denim and PVA glue, and the soles are black rubber sheeting from Bunnings, which I cut up to make stacked heels and the sole. Like all my other shoes, these are sanded down before glueing together with contact adhesive, and the heels are nailed to the soles inside, as pictured in a previous pair here. Also as usual, I made the liners using foam inner shoe soles from Coles, cut to size and covered with chocolate suedette using PVA glue, so they match the interior.

Excuse the picture overload. I’m just so happy and thrilled with them, I’ve been excitedly threading and re-threading with the different coloured laces and prancing about my house, taking pictures of them. I LOVE all the laces! In fact, I’m just in love, full stop!

The only laces I’m meh on at the moment are unsurprisingly the store-bought black ones… which, simply because they are boring, paradoxically will probably become the most useful and worn ones. Or not. I think maybe I should stop being boring, I need to break out and wear the fun stuff more often.

And that’s it! Ahhhhh, I feel like I can hang up my shoemaking hat, or should that be lasts? for the moment, since I think I’ve covered my basics and probably have enough essential shoes to last me for this winter now. Although, of course I am not. In fact I’m already started on my next pair of footwear…. mwahahahahaha. eeek! I’m addicted! SO much inspiration to be had, and so little time!

Posted in: shoes, Uncategorized \ Tagged: own design, shoes

totally local, natural dyeing

28/04/2016 4:02 pm \ 38 Comments \ Carolyn

Above: top row L to R; indigo, avocado skin, bracken, lower row L to R; coreopsis, chopped avocado pits, whole avocado pits

Progress report. I’ve been fiddling about with natural dyeing for my Totally Local outfit… this is the new name for the challenge known last year as 1 year 1 outfit; where we make an outfit for ourselves using ONLY locally sourced materials and absolutely nothing NOT!!! Yep, for us that rules out zips, thread, and even fabric! making it quite a challenge. That’s ok, I love a challenge. The “totally local” is the brainchild of Nicki, of this is moonlight. I enjoyed myself so much last year I wanted to do it again, and have been brainstorming ideas and hatching plans for my outfit for this year, mwahahahaha.

My outfit from last year is here… and it’s all very… colourless? isn’t it? That’s because I opted to use just the natural undyed merino and alpaca wool for my outfit, which is all white or off-white by default. The only one shot of colour in my ensemble is the brilliant chartreuse sour-grass dyed crochet border on my underwear, which is hidden away! Yeah that was a bit silly, wasn’t it?! Anyway, this year I am aiming for a bit more colour in my ensemble, and so have been gathering lots of materials and bits and bobs to make some pretty COLOURS!

So here’s the run-down…

I’ve been buying skeins of handspun, naturally white merino wool from Bilby Yarns. This merino is 100% Western Australian, grown, sheared and, well, everything locally. The fleece was spun by two lovely local ladies, Beverley and Gwen. Literally, nothing about this wool has ever stepped foot outside of the south west of Western Australia, so it qualifies for the challenge perfectly!

You might remember that last year I used naturally white merino yarn that had been handspun by Beverley, for the kangaroo paw embroidery and sewing-together of my felted dress. I still had some of that yarn left over and simply bought some more, as Beverley spun more. In some cases, I bought it still wet from its wash!

Now on to les couleurs…

Blue: I owe this beautiful shade of indigo blue to Nicki from this is moonlight, thank you, Nicki! Nicki sourced and nurtured a pot of local indigo… I think it was with the assistance of Trudi Pollard? (not sure, maybe Nicki can correct me if she reads this!) and then, when she learnt she would be going over to the eastern states and would not be taking her indigo pot with her, generously offered to share it with a few others of us local girls who are doing the project, . Thank you so much, Nicki! we had a great fun day, dyeing with various locally sourced dyes that Nicki had built up. I personally only had eyes for that enormously difficult to obtain BLUE. I soaked a few of my skeins, gently wrung them out and bought them home unwashed and still full of the dye, to “steep”. Those skeins turned out intensely blue… practically navy! So, at home, after a few weeks of sitting, I soaked those skeins with some fresh, new, white merino, and the washings gave me this lighter shade of mid-blue above. I’m planning to keep and use those deeper blue skeins, probably next year, because for this year, I really wanted these more washed-out shades.

My blue wool above is pictured here with some of my own indigo plants, that I am careful nurturing and trying real hard not to kill. I do hope to use these for dyeing… one day. Obviously that is not about to happen anytime soon, though.

Pink; from avocado pits, merino pre-mordanted with alum. My avocados were grown on a market garden in Wanneroo, and I bought them from Scutti’s, my local greengrocer. Basically, I bought them while in season and have been hoarding and freezing the pits and skins all summer! Once I had enough pits to play with, I gently brought my wool to the boil with some unbroken pits as described in this method here, and left it to cool in the dye and then to soak for a further four days, as the colour of the pot deepened. I was seriously blown away by how beautiful the colour turned out! so I’ve been collecting more avocado pits and will probably do some more wool this exact same shade. I LOVE IT.

Apricot; this is the result of dyeing with chopped up avocado pits, plus skins; merino pre-mordanted with alum. Again, boiled gently for half and hour or so, topping up with boiling water as needed, then left to cool and then soak in the solution for four more days. I quite like this colour, and may do some more of it.

Light sage green; this is the result of dyeing with avocado skins with some avocado flesh left on them… same method as above. This colour is alright, quite soft, a barely there grey/green. Green seems to be another one of those elusive shades that is quite difficult to obtain from our local resources. I may or may not overdye this one a touch… just waiting and seeing for a bit …

Yellow-y apricot; just a few coreopsis flowers, on merino pre-mordanted with alum. The coreopsis flowers are grown in a garden in Willagee, harvested and dried by the owner, and are available through Bilby Yarns. To get this soft colour, you really do only need just a few flowers. For my first experiments, I used lots. Haha, the joke’s on me, because that first batch turned out brilliant, BRIGHT orange. For this shade I kept a close eye on it; taking it out to check and rinsing a few times, dipping for just a bit longer until I reached this nice soft shade.

Pale, rusty pink; this is bracken, on merino pre-mordanted in alum. I gathered the bracken from my parents’ place. Hehe, funny, story, I half-jokingly asked Mum… “would it be alright if I picked some bracken for a dyeing project?” After a short incredulous pause Mum says, “Carolyn, pick as much as you like!!!” To explain, Mum and Dad have a large property, with loads and LOADS of bracken, and Mum HATES it with a deep fiery passion. It is a native plant so she lets it be for the most part; but when we first got the block it was overgrowing the paddock quite severely and Mum wanted to put in an orchard. I have memories of my Dad driving all around the paddock with a log chained to the back of his land rover, dragging it across the bracken, trying to clear it away. It’s such tenacious stuff, it grew back over and over and over again! Year after year it kept popping up all over the place. Mum eventually got enough cleared for her orchard… but it was a massive effort.

That frond in the picture above is dead and brown… obviously, since I’d just boiled the living daylights out of it for dyeing!! I did pick and use quite a big bunch but forgot to keep just one little frond aside for a demonstrative picture with my wool… but if you can imagine, it is actually quite a strong, bright green in colour, so this beautiful, port-wine/pink shade it gave was a lovely surprise to me.

I love all those beautifully soft pastelly shades, and am so happy how they blend together so tonally and gently. In the process of dyeing I did get a few other stronger shades, that while I like them very well in their own right I’m still undecided as to whether to use them for this particular project… as follows:

From left:

Bright orange: from a large number of coreopsis flowers. It’s lovely, but maybe not a good match with all my pastels…

Moss green; a result of one dip in indigo, plus a dip in the coreopsis bath. I really love this colour, but again, quite strong and vivid …

and deep navy blue, from Nicki’s dye-pot. I’m not sure how I managed to get such a deep shade from the pot! I’m wondering if it got caught up in some indigo sludge at the bottom or something… but this is a very strong colour for a single dip in natural indigo!

Mustard: I seriously adore this mustard, the result of one dip in coreopsis and then a further dip in avocado skin dye. It does go so nicely with all the other colours! but is one of the “strong” ones, so I’m still um-ing and ah-ing over this one too…

So that’s it! to summarise; I’m pretty excited about all the lovely colours you can get dyeing with local plants. The only one that I would describe as difficult to obtain locally is the indigo, of course… if we did not know someone who had nurtured and cultivated a special dye-pot then blue would not have happened for me this time, so I am so glad and grateful that Nicki got one! Blue is the hardest of colours to come by naturally. The other plant sources; the coreopsis, avocado and bracken; are all plants that are grown right here in Western Australia for some reason or another. Also, of course don’t forget sour grass! this is a rampant weed around these parts, and last year I picked some from my own garden and got this bright acidic yellow colour, as described here. I’m currently carefully nurturing some more ~~weeds~~ precious sour grass, with a view to getting some more wool in this colour too…

Look at this divine array of colours!! I’ve got some colour decisions to make, designs to design 😉 in short, I’m getting pretty hyped to continue on with the next stage of my totally local outfit!

from top to bottom: coreopsis (light), chopped avocado pits, bracken, whole avocado pits, avocado skins, indigo (light), indigo (dark), indigo + coreopsis, coreopsis (dark), coreopsis + avocado skins, sour grass

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: dyeing, one year one outfit, totally local

Morgan boyfriend jeans

26/04/2016 4:20 pm \ 35 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve made some boyfriend jeans! Hehe, I actually made these aaaaaaaages ago! and have been dying for the pattern release, just so I can wear them more often. They’re so comfy and easy to wear, they’re my current favourites. I really really love them 🙂

Pattern; the Morgan jeans by Closet Case patterns, named for the lovely Morgan of crab and bee. They are a mid-rise, button-flied, slightly cropped leg jean with a skim-the-body fit *deep breath* Wow, there are so many descriptors attached to jeans now, yeah? Jeans are no longer just “jeans” but there are so many defining clarifications that come with each style. These are quite different from any of the jeans I have made before in shape and fit, but of course they are still “just jeans” in the sense that they have all the features of jeans beloved to us all, like the 5-pockets for example. Heather kindly asked me to test the pattern, and this is my first go, off the bat. Apparently the leg has been widened slightly since I made these.

Fabric; these are designed for a non-stretch denim, so I found a nice, crisp, deep dark charcoal cotton denim, mid weight and with absolutely zero stretch to it in Spotlight. No stretch, and the jeans still feel fantastic! I also used coppery-brown Guttermann’s upholstery thread for the topstitching, and copper-y coloured jeans buttons, all from Spotlight. The grey cotton for the pockets and waistband lining is the same fabric as my grey gardens dress (Fabulous Fabrics).

My first button fly! I wasn’t sure if I’d like it at first, I thought it would be bulky; but now I’ve got it and have worn it a few days, I realised my fears were unfounded, and I really do like it. Also, it’s nice to have something a bit different, yeah?

Pockets, with lots coppery/brown topstitching #topstitchingporn

Leather patch on the back. I cut this from one of the last scraps of leftovers from my Danish suede jacket. I forgot to add it at first, doh! but it does make them look just a little more ready-to-wear, no?

Alterations: initially that waistband was quite gape-y in the small of my back, a usual thing for me. I’m quite hippy, I suppose! so I took in several inches off the waist at the centre back, tapering out in a straight line out to the hips. And shortened the waistband at centre back, correspondingly. This is my usual adjustment to fix that problem for me, and worked just fine for these too. I didn’t alter the position of the pockets, so on my jeans they are situated a little closer and more slanted inwards to the centre back seam than the pattern intended, but I thought they looked ok and didn’t need moving.

hadn’t added the patch at this stage…

I love how they look rolled up a coupa rolls, this makes them three quarter on me and I really love this, a little bit 50’s capri pant-like. I love how they show off a pair of little lace-up shoes. Hehe it’s probably a bit obvious from my shoe-making efforts that I’m SO right into the flat lace-ups at the mo! btw, those red sandshoes in my beach pictures below? are fully dead now, (sob) I’m pretty sad about that, I thought they were cute. #needmoreredshoes

Top picture is my current outfit of the day… I actually put on something else first thing today, inwardly wanting to wear my Morgan jeans and moaning once again that I couldn’t yet, because you know, the Reveal and all. And then I saw on IG that Heather had released the pattern. So I could wear them, yay! Other outfit sloughed and abandoned, Morgan jeans donned with joy and delight 🙂

This style is perfect for the weather we are getting right now; which is starting to get a little crisp in the morning but still quite warm during the day and not cold enough yet for socks! Not too hot, not too cold, but just right. These are going to get worn a tonne …

Details:

Jeans; Morgan jeans by Closet Case patterns, non-stretchy cotton denim
Top, (white) loose drapey top from drape drape by Hisako Sato, cotton jersey, details here (black) self-drafted Tshirt, details here
Raincoat (top picture); made by me, self-drafted, details here
Shoes; red sandshoes (below), made by me here, yellow shoes (top picture), made by me here

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: Closet Case files, daily outfit, jeans, Morgan, pattern review, Sienna

paprika suede desert boots

29/03/2016 3:24 pm \ 83 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve made some boots! or kind of like, shoe-boots, really. Desert boots.

Ok, I have to be honest; I’m so proud of these I think I might just explode with happiness!!! Finally, a pair of winter shoes in which I have complete satisfaction and pride and joy. I’m so so so so SO immensely pleased with how these turned out!

Woooooooooot!

Ok, calming down a little. The lowdown.

Materials; my friend Megan had given me a few small bits and bobs of sturdy fabrics, including some thick and stiff, paprika coloured suedette upholstery fabric. I immediately envisioned boots of course, hehehe; my mind nowadays almost totally taken up with thoughts of shoes and how I can bend whatever materials I catch sight of into making them. I used the paprika suedette for the outer, and the boots are lined completely with faux chocolate suedette, a far more flowy and lightweight fabric, the leftovers from this little cropped top. The outer and lining lightly glued together; plus I covered a pair of insoles with the chocolate suedette too. This fabric originally from the Fabric Store in Melbourne. Laces and insoles from Coles, all glues and the black rubber from which I cut the soles and heels from Bunnings. I cut an interior layer and one layer of the stacked heels from some thin cork placemats. Do you like the one layer of brown in the heels, from the cork? I did this on a whim, and while my husband and family thought it looked a bit weird, like a mistake; I absolutely LOVE this little feature. Kinda gives my own little touch :)Topstitching; I used upholstery thread, in a shade of burnt caramel. I like the contrast and that it doesn’t match the paprika.

Eyelets; rather than add metal eyelets, I left the holes raw. Most of the desert boots I’ve seen are like this and I prefer that look.

Pattern, I drafted my own, using my new (old) vintage lasts. It looks like this:

For my own future benefit, since this procedure actually worked very well with these particular materials: a rough run-through of the construction…

Glue uppers and lining pieces together leaving the front of the vamp free so as to create the toe puff later, and back part separate so as to sew the back seam together later and then create the heel counters… topstitch edges, punch eyelets, sew pieces together.

Sew quarters to vamps with some sturdy reinforcing at the point where the eyelet closure joins on. By the way; this style of shoe in which the eyelet closure sits OVER the vamp is known as the Derby style, as opposed to the Oxford style in which the eyelet closure sits underneath the vamp. My previous lace-up shoes have all been in the Oxford style, except for the yellow ones which were also Derbys. Learn something new every day, no? 🙂

Sew the back seam of lining and upper separately, sew the lining to a fabric underfoot piece, glue the upper and lining together behind the heel and topstitch the upper edge, back of the heel.

Create the toe puffs and heel counters. I used stretch cotton denim and several layers of PVA glue. My heel counters (not seen) stretch around to “just” join onto the toe puffs here.

Glue uppers to the lining, stretch and shape the fabric over the toe puffs and heel counters as much as possible. I spent an evening in front of the TV just stretching by hand. Then stitch the uppers to an underfoot layer of self-fabric (if sturdy) or leather. When stitching leathers and leather-like fabrics in any project, be it shoes or bags or anything; a double up-and-down stitch with two threads is employed. So, stitch a running stitch one way all around, then return and stitch back over the same stitching, in the same holes, completely the double row of stitching. This can also be done with the stitching going in one direction and employing two needles, doing each stitch twice, one at a time.

first row of stitching, sorry for the blurry picture, I swear it didn’t look blurry when I took it!

aaand, the second row of stitching, complete.

Then I trimmed away the excess, cut a cork inner sole and glued it to the under-foot layers with contact adhesive, then made a bias binding strip of black quilting cotton and glued this all round the edge (PVA glue). You can leave the stitching and edge visible and raw and unbound, which is a more authentic desert boot look; but I wished for a neater finish plus visually to have a stronger black line here to tie the touches of black in the shoelaces and (future) soles and heels together more visibly.

Up until now, most my glueing has been using PVA glue, but for the stacked heels and to glue the soles to the underneath of the shoe I used contact adhesive.

Last step was to cut foam inner soles to fit, cover with the lining fabric and insert into the shoes…

The height of the heel was determined by the fact that I will wish to wear them with my favourite flared jeans… my lasts are not reeeeally designed for a high heel so I went as high as I dared while not destroying the line of the shoe. I’m very happy with this height as it looks with my jeans! 🙂

They are a little loose-ish on my bare and stockinged/tight-ed feet but fit nice and snugly with my hand-knitted socks. I will want to wear it with both tights and with socks, so this is perfect for me 🙂

Yes, I knit all my own socks too. Well, been making my own clothes for years so I’ve built up a supply of literally everything.

I’ve kept a few old shoeboxes from old rtw pairs for my self-made shoes, so they stay nice and unsquished by other pairs of shoes in the bottom of my wardrobe. Here they are, all snuggled up and ready and waiting for winter. I can hardly wait to wear them!

Posted in: sewing, shoes, Uncategorized \ Tagged: own design, shoes

the year of handmade, 1

26/03/2016 3:56 pm \ 31 Comments \ Carolyn

So, since I’ve already been quietly getting on with it for the last month and it’s actually been successful so far! I think I can finally officially announce that I am doing this thing; my Year of Handmade.

For a period of one year; I will wear ONLY clothing and shoes that I personally have made with my own two hands.

Long term readers may remember how I’ve dreamed of emulating Natalie Purschwitz’s Makeshift Project, a yearlong project in which she wore only clothing and shoes made by herself… I’ve been a long term admirer of her project and idea, periodically I even go back and browse through her blog and admire the clothing and shoes all over again! and for aaaages I’ve really wanted to have a go and see if I could do the same myself. During 2013 I did wear only clothing made by myself, but allowed myself ready-to-wear shoes, since at that stage I hadn’t made any. Well, now I have made a nice little supply of self-made shoes and am in the process of building up more, and so I’m starting to feel cautiously confident that I can do it!

So, it’s on! I’ve made a little button in my sidebar that links to my project outfit pictures in my dedicated Flickr album ; Year of Handmade. Actually I think I’ve held off announcing it on my blog all this last month not just because I was scared of failing at winter shoes yet, but also because I hadn’t thought of nor made a button yet! ha!

I started on 22nd February, and so I will keep it up until at least 21st February 2017.

I’m going to keep the project mainly in the Flickr album, although periodically I may write an update here on how I’m feeling about it as it goes along. Consequently, my thoughts for the first month;

It’s not surprising to me that I have plenty of clothes to see me through this thing, plenty; and that shoes are my biggest restriction. I am a beginner shoemaker, and while I am pretty happy with most of my handmade shoes, I still have to turn out a winter shoe that I am 100% satisfied with. SO far, the project has sailed along pretty smoothly because I’ve been able to wear my summer shoes, and I’m really happy with ALL of those. My 2-tone caramel/ivory sandals and my denim shoes are very satisfactory to me; I LOVE wearing them and am super happy with how both pairs turned out. It helped that they are both pretty simple style of shoe to make, and so I hadn’t encountered any of the challenges associated with making a closed-in shoe yet… though I have now!!

I’ve found that colour-wise and style-wise, both these pairs of shoes go with practically every item of summer/trans-seasonal clothing that I have. Cannot stress enough how useful this is!

On a morale point of view, it feels so SO great to be able to go forth wearing a 100% self-made outfit in which I still feel halfway stylish. In fact, that feeling is one of the most rewarding things ever, from a maker’s point of view. Every now and again, as I’m out and about, it occurs to me; how many other people out and about would be wearing a head-to-toe outfit 100% made by themselves? Not many, that’s what. It’s a hugely satisfying feeling, HUGE; and one that so far keeps me motivated to keep going for the year.

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