Following up on this recent post by my friends at OurNextMake and this post from 7 months ago (!), I thought I'd share some more details about the process now that I've become more confident in what I'm doing :)

I don't think I mentioned it all those months ago in my first post, but the goal of teaching myself how to make shoes is to make my own wedding shoes for this coming September. But that's a very serious, high complexity project, so I needed to make a whole lot of practice shoes first before I felt comfortable starting on that!

Backstory

In February 2023, when this all began, I was wearing a pair of shoes that I had bought, intending for them to be my wedding shoes. I wore them out for a full day, at 3DEXPERIENCE World, with the intention of breaking them in. To my dismay, they were complete pieces of junk!!! I've never had trouble walking in heels in my entire life, but these monstrosities made my feet want to fall off before I even reached the end of the day!!! And I had worn them around the house prior to that too :(

So I was walking with @SL, complaining about it, when he jokingly said "Why don't you make your own shoes, Rachael?" And I said, "You know what, I think I will!" Now here we are.

The Last Problem

In OurNextMake's video, I described my shoemaking journey with emphasis on needing a properly sized last. The last is a form, usually made of wood or plastic, that is the size of your foot (length, width, and volume) in the shape of the style of shoe you are making. I had a great deal of trouble figuring out the correct sized last for myself, because it turns out the shoe size I've been buying from stores all my life is incorrect!!! 

I always wore a US women's 7.5, sometimes a 7.5W if I could find it. Here is a picture of one of my earlier practice shoes, using a 7.5 length last that I padded up to increase the width:

Look at that gap!!! Turns out, my foot is much shorter than I was led to believe all my life!

And so I spent several months buying shorter and wider lasts, in complete disbelief at what the size charts were telling me, until I finally just quit and turned to the Maker Way(TM) :P

One of the final lasts I bought had a beautiful pointed toe shape, and the width was good, but it was still a half size too long. The practice shoe I made on it left about a 1cm gap between my heel and the back of the shoe. Having SOLIDWORKS at my fingertips, I thought to myself, "you know what, I think I'll just take a 3D scan of this and fix it myself". And so I did!

Using the Peel3D scanner in the Waltham office's 3DEXPERIENCE Lab, I was able to get a scan of that last and dump out a smooth STL to work with.

This is the resulting scan after I cleaned it up in the laser scanner's software from Peel3D:

I imported the model into SOLIDWORKS where I applied a non-uniform scale to reduce the length while maintaining the same width and height. I split the model down the center and compared the measurement of the sole, from heel to toe, adjusting the scale factor until the new length was 1cm shorter than the original length. Once I was happy about the changes, I made mirrored copies of each half of the last so I could manufacture a left and right version.

I color coded each half so I would be sure not to make copies of the same side, laid them out in an assembly within an outline dimensioned to match my stock material, and visited the OurNextMake garage!

Sal taught me how to prepare the file for CNC, I bought a gigantic board of white oak, and it was time to make! This is what the job looked like in Vcarve before beginning:

We cut out a pocket from the small bit of material remaining between the last halves, that way nothing would go flying once the pieces were cut out! We made sure there were multiple three dimensional tabs anchoring the last halves to the stock, again so nothing will go flying later :P The large circles represent a knot in the particular piece of wood I was using, so we made sure to measure their exact location on the wood and arrange the last halves accordingly so the bit wouldn't break by accidentally hitting it. The smaller circles are holes we used to drill the stock wood onto the bed and secure it in place during the job.

Here is the job in progress:

Once the halves were cut out, I brought them home where I glued them together using Barge toluene free clear contact cement (which I use as my main shoemaking adhesive as well).

Here's what the new last looks like next to the original:

I did a bit more work on the lasts, primarily filling any gaps with a two-part epoxy clay called Milliput. I then sanded everything smooth so nothing would catch while making shoes. I also finished the whole thing with wood oil and conditioner, which was a BAD IDEA, but at least it looked nice.

The Shoemaking Process

There are many steps that go into shoemaking, but like any new skill, it's not terribly complicated and just requires copious repetition until it makes sense.

Now that I have the last, I can get started on making a shoe. The first thing I need to do is make a pattern, which I do by covering the whole last in tape and then marking it up. The reason why finishing the wood like I did was a bad idea is that the tape didn't stick to my last at all! After a great many attempts, and significant patience, I finally got the tape to cooperate enough to draw out my pattern and transfer it to paper.

Making the pattern is the second most difficult step after figuring out the correct last. There are many adjustments and tweaks I made after drawing it onto the tape, that I only learned by watching other shoemakers on YouTube and by reading their blogs. It's difficult because you can, and I have, commit hours to what amount to very small pattern alterations in search of the perfect fit. There is a saying that every millimeter counts in shoemaking, and that is true to an extent, but at some point you have to accept that it's good enough or else you'll never get the shoe done. Perfection is the enemy of progress!!

I made multiple practice shoes on this new last, verifying that the fit was indeed good enough.

Once the pattern was done, I made the heels. I have a pair that I bought for the larger sized last, which means I needed to make adjustments for the new heels to fit on the current last. I traced the outline of the heel I bought onto the cube of poplar I was using to make the new heel, then marked the changes I needed to make before cutting it. 

Because my new last is 1cm shorter than the previous, I needed to shift my heel 1cm back as well to align with the distribution of my weight on my heel. I then cut away the excess with several types of hand saws, and used a spindle sander with varying barrel diameters to achieve the smooth curved look of the Louis heel/French heel I was going for. Once the heel shape was correct, I sanded down along the top so that it sat flush against the bottom of the last.

Here are some pictures of that process:

Finished heels:
 

Next come the uppers, which is the fabric and leather layer that makes up the portion of the shoe that goes over the top of your foot. I used a grey, veg tan goatskin for the lining and the blue fabric for the outside. I strengthened the fabric with an iron-on interfacing, because this material frays like nobody's business! It will also help resist against tearing during the lasting process.

The uppers were sewn together along the topline, and then connected at the back of the heel for a single seam line.

I apparently neglected to take any pictures of the insole, shank, toe puff/heel counter, and outsole process, so I'll just describe it in words and you can check out OurNextMake's video for the visuals :)

The insole is the part of the bottom of the shoe that is on the inside. When lasting the uppers, you attach it to the insole (unless you have a welt or rand, but my shoes do not so you can google that if you want to). It's made from a thicker leather that is wet molded to the bottom of the last.

The toe puff and heel counter are made from a thinner yet still pretty stiff leather, meant to hold the shape of the shoe at the heel and toe area. These are also wet molded onto the last and then later on glued between the grey leather lining and the blue outer fabric, using a special stiffening paste adhesive called "Hirschkleber".

The shank is critical in heeled shoes, it makes the shoe stiff so that the heel does not bend under as you step. I made mine out of 8 layers of cardstock glued together with the same Barge contact cement, though it is also commonly made out of stiff leather, wood, and even specially made steel shanks. Modern shoes bought from the store are made from plastic, I believe.

The outsole is made from an EXTREMELY stiff leather, called "outsole bend". It must be soaked for at least an hour, better if left overnight, before you can even cut it by hand. It took me 7-12 passes with a fresh blade in a Dewalt utility knife to cut out my outsoles. I then yanked the ends through a leather splitter so that the back half would be thin enough to curve up the arch and back down the heel.

So many more pieces...

I lasted the uppers onto the insole, meaning I pulled the leather taught and glued it in place, then glued on the stiffeners, and then pulled and glued the fabric over top. The shank was built on top of the insole before lasting the uppers, so everything is neatly encased inside the fabric layer. I then returned to the wooden heels from earlier and covered those in fabric as well, using Barge cement. I then cemented the heels onto the shoe, filled in any gaps with a sheet of cork filler, and finally cemented the outsole to that.

Unlasting the shoe followed - meaning I pulled the almost finished shoe off from the last. I had to put a screw through the insole and heel so that it wouldn't fall off from use. I then used thin sheets of open cell foam to pad the insole along the inside, and covered it all with a matching grey leather piece called the sockliner or insole sock. I stamped my name to the sockliner too, because they're my shoes and I made them!!

Finished Shoe!

Here are the finished shoes in all their glory!

And here they are with the matching dress :) This dress and the shoes together were made to wear at my henna party!

Thank you so much @CO and @SL for your help making the lasts, I would have been totally and completely stuck (and out another couple hundred bucks from buying the wrong things) without you!!!!!

Concluding Thoughts

Now, many months after this last and the corresponding shoes were created, I finally got my hands on a Brannock device and learned that I am indeed not a US women's 7.5, but a "6E". Meaning US women's 6 in length, E in width. For reference, the standard width for women's shoes bought at a store in the US is a B width (D width for men). This means that a 6E, 6.5D, 7C, and 7.5B have the same/similar width, which is why I was wearing a "regular 7.5" for my entire adult life. And now that I am keenly aware of this immutable fact, I now harshly judge every single pair of my ill fitting shoes that I've amassed over my lifetime...

If you, too, wish to embark upon a shoemaking journey, please either buy a Brannock device or find a shoe store that has one to verify your actual shoe size before buying any expensive lasts :P If you're going through the trouble of making a shoe, you're going to be darn sure it fits perfectly!!

I also have some general observations, now that I know more about lasts and shoemaking in general. When I reduced the length of the last, I should have also reduced the height slightly as well. This makes perfect sense if you think of a triangle: the length and hypotenuse became shorter, while the height remained the same. This means that the angle between hypotenuse and the length must become steeper to maintain that same height. Therefore, my foot, the hypotenuse, is at a steeper angle relative to the floor, putting more pressure on the ball of the foot, which is less comfy. To remedy this, I should either decrease the height of the last, or add extra padding to the shoe to even out the weight distribution. Or both, both is good :)

Lastly, if I ever CNC another last (and I do want to, after scanning my actual foot for a truly bespoke last someday after the wedding), I would change the cut path from radial to linear. Because the wood I used was plain sawn, and the grain was very straight, a small chunk from the ankle area of both lasts broke off and flew away while CNCing (I replaced it with milliput). It could also just be a white oak thing, not sure. We used a radial toolpath so the last would gradually emerge from the highest point until the lowest point was cut. It just so happens that the lowest point ended up with very little reinforcement in the end. If we change the direction of the tool path so that spot is cut first, while the remaining wood is still in place, I think it will be less likely to break off.

Wedding Shoe Sneak Peek

Ok, so the whole point of this exercise is to make my wedding shoes, yes? Here's my progress so far :)

Just last week, I finally began the process of working on the uppers for my wedding shoes! The fabric layer is 100% silk, using Japanese kinkoma thread in various golds, coppers, and silvers to embroider a floral design I lifted from one of my grandmother's antiques that I inherited. It's going to take me forever, but that's going to make it so much more worthwhile :)

See you in a few months for the final installment of this journey!