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| from red wool at the top, to yellow zig zags on the left. |
It all began with a pair of pink leather Ministars from Target. I'm sure you've seen them; the little leather shoes with animals on them or made to look like tennis shoes. They were a gift from my sister Liz and I think they were Adella's first pair of shoes. I kept trying to put them, and other baby clothes, on Adella WAY before they were close to fitting. (I think some days I changed her outfit four or five times, trying to see if the cute, girly clothes we received upon her arrival would fit.) When the pink Ministars finally fit and she got over a brief fear of shoes, she was wearing them all over the place. Every time I put them on her, I would look at them closely and think, "They are just three pieces, they would be so easy to make...." So, one day, I gave it a shot. I painstakingly created a pattern, measuring the toe and heel. I broke three needles and sewed the first shoe together backwards, but I ended up with a pair of red wool and grey leather shoes. The fit wasn't quite right, but they looked cute and served their purpose.
I adjusted my pattern for the second pair, and learned a valuable lesson. When adding embellishments on something like shoes or the finger-less gloves, a pair of anything, make sure to mirror the image. Notice the burgundy shoes versus the blue ones with buttons. Ah-HA!
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| lesson learned, but still cute! |
Then I adjusted my pattern a bit more: bad idea. After the pink and grey pair (bottom of the top picture), things went downhill and I almost threw in the towel. The green circle shoes were made during this dark point of my cobbling. I just couldn't get the proportions of the toe right, and that threw the whole fit off. Finally, I swallowed my pride, looked on the internet, (actually my dad looked for me :)) and found a real pattern. Very similar to my original pattern, it had a couple small changes that I couldn't seem to figure out on my own. I made my own small changes to this final pattern and have it perfected. I still keep trying new things; I put bamboo batting in a pair a couple of days ago to make them thicker. I usually just use lightweight canvas by itself.
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| my dad's machine. the adler. |
I use my dad's industrial machine to sew the shoes together. No more broken needles for me! The soles are leather, and although I think my machine is fairly strong, it was difficult to sew the leather AND several layers of canvas. I usually get about 4-5 pairs prepared at my house and then take them over to finish them up. The hard part is remembering to check, and recheck the way I position the shoe pieces before I sew. They have to be sewn right sides together, toe first, then heel. This gets confusing; sometimes I over think it and confuse myself. Then they have to be trimmed, and turned right side out. I check the toe to make sure it is smooth; one haywire stitch can make a strange looking bubble. He has this machine set up in the basement and it's fun to hear him and Adella playing above me. She always dumps out the bin of blocks, making a huge noise and then I hear my dad exclaim, "OH!" like he does. I love it.
And that is the history of my shoes. I have made them in all sizes, colors, patterns and materials. The best part is the moment of truth, when I finish stitching those 3 "simple" pieces together, and turn the whole thing right side out, and wow, it's a shoe! And I made it!
