Cordwaining Part 2

I had the third part of my shoe workshop with Brett Walker this weekend.  I now have pieces that bear resemblance to shoes!  My first step, after a few small finishing touches to the instep leather, was to make a paper pattern.  From that I cut out a mock-up from cheap leather and quickly lasted it.  You can see the general silhouette and now I'm sure that I don't have shapes that won't stretch to fit later.

This is an example of one of Brett's mock-up shoes.  The heel is very much like the one that I'll have.

Then we bravely cut out the fabric and whittaw leather, pasting them together and leaving them to dry overnight.  We then whipped up the back seam using silk thread, and then attached the quarters to the vamp.  I can honestly say this part is the easiest for me of the whole process so far!

I then bound all the edges with dyed silk grosgrain.

The next step we touched upon was for the sole.  This is going to be made as a turn shoe, meaning we put it together inside-out and then turn it before adding the heel and insole.  The sole leather was too thick for a turn shoe, so we took a great deal of flesh off.  There's no shape around the heel since that will actually attach down the front of the wooden heel piece.  The line will have carving done around the edge up to it to create a drop off point where the stitches will go through when attaching the uppers.

I still need to put the second upper together, flesh the second sole, and assemble my leather apron (which apparently came from the largest mutant sheep we've ever seen.  I think the leather company lied...).  Then it'll be on to assembly!!