Thursday, October 21, 2010

Latest homemade shoe

homemade closed toe sandalMy latest pair of shoes. A closed-toe sandal made of fabric with a leather sole. It started out as another pair of fisherman's sandals but the right one came out too small so I decided to try a closed toe front instead.

They are a little small for me. I guess the sole tracing I made to the shape of my foot works well for sandals but for shoes it needs to be bigger. And the upper needs to be bigger too. My feet are just so terribly wide. I have to really modify my patterns to fit my duck feet.

I got the plastic buckles and webbing from the hardware store. I stitched the uppers to a thick piece of leather, but under the leather I put a layer of non-stick shelf-liner material. It's sort of like a thin rubber-like material. The plan was to glue a real sole on, and I hoped the shelf-liner would provide a tiny bit of cushion plus a good surface for the glue, but I'm not sure I'm happy with the fit. They fit okay without socks, though.

open_toed_sandal3.JPG Update: I couldn't tolerate how tight they were over my toe so I made them into open-toed sandals. They are butt-ugly, I admit, but I'm going to try hiking in them. At least with the open toe, dirt that gets in should be able to be shaken out.

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