This is the second pair of skulls & roses shoes – this time with an organza ribbon for a little bit of variety.
Tag: organza
Spiderweb shoes
These are the first pair of shoes to emerge from my Shed – and aren’t they pretty?
My friend Chris (who teaches quilting and makes quilts to commission) provided the fabric, which is covered with sparkly copper spiderwebs on a purple and green background. The shoes are lined with purple organic cotton, and I thought the green organza ribbons made the perfect finishing touch.
They’ve been declared “lovely and comfy” which is a good start – I look forward to hearing how Chris gets on with them – if it ever stops raining long enough for her to wear them!
Spotted Lace Shoes
I realise that you can’t see the spotted lace in this picture – you’ll just have to trust me that it’s there! (It’s the same as the lace on the Regency-ish dress.)
This is my very first pair of completely handmade shoes that are suitable for wearing outside. They have 4mm thick ridged rubber soles, held on with the most revoltingly stinky glue I’ve ever used. And that’s saying something, having used Cow Gum for years when I was a design student.
I’ve been slowly cutting out lots and lots of layers to make the prototype shoes for my patient testers, but I wasn’t entirely happy with the pair I made back in April. It turned out to be really difficult to trim off the welt without leaving an untidy mess, showing all the construction layers. I wanted to make a test pair with the welts turned inwards, to satisfy myself that it could be done neatly enough, and that the shoes would still be strong enough around the edges.
I’ll be wearing this pair to go dancing in this evening, so I’ll be able to report back very soon on how well they hold up!
When I agreed to make eleven pairs of prototype shoes I hadn’t really thought through how long it would take to cut out all the bits. Each shoe has four layers for the upper, three layers for the midsole, and then the outer sole. That’s eight pieces per shoe, sixteen per pair, which means I need to cut out A HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SIX pieces of fabric, cork and rubber.
I’ve made a start, but I have a feeling that this may take some time…