Wearables Leather shoes for a JWD

I've made some shoes for my hard-to-fit Withdoll girl. Her feet are a bit smaller than ordinary slim minis and a bit narrower than Narsha and other inbetween sizes. So I decided to make my own and I would love some qritique, opitions and tips, if you have them.

The shoes are made using cromium tanned leather. Thin lamb for the uppers (the kind used for gloves) and some 1,5-2mm scraps I had lying around (I think it's goat) for the soles.
The edges and back seams are sewn on machine. All the rest of the construction is done with contact cement.
The shoes are made on lasts made out of polymer clay.







And here they are worn with thin socks.


Thank you for looking.

 

Thank you!
Yes, you are right, they are quite plain. It's partly intentional as I want to nail down the technique for making them before going too wild with design. But I do have plans for future shoes and boots with a bit more going on.

Thank you very much for your input!
I think the gapping is due to how the leather stretched when I made the edge seam. I tried the pattern out on a faux leather mock-up first and didn't do any treatment to the edge then, so I forgot to account for it. Simply lowering the edge might solve it for low pumps, but I want to be able to use this pattern as a starting point for other types of shoes later, so I need it to fit.
I will definately make some more tests before trying again and then adjust the pattern acordingly. I think it can be compensated for.

Thank you!

 

I made a new version today.

I narrowed the uppers a little towards the opening and I did the hem a little bit different. I made a lot of timy relief cuts on the hem allowance and I was a bit more agressive with the hammer when flattening the hem.
It did the trick, mostly, anyway. There is still a little bit of gapping but a lot less than before and the edge is not as thick. I am still thinking of ways of making it even thinner, but as it is it's thinner than any of the comercially made shoes I have on hand to compare it to, so i will call it good enough for now and I feel confident in moving forward with other designs based on this pattern.



Thank you all for your thoughts!

 

Thank you! I must admit I am a little bit proud (and surprised ) at how they came out.

 

Thank you @Teddy !
I hope that with minor variations they can pass for simple shoes from many different eras including contemporary.

I have made shoes before with cast rubber soles, with craft foam soles and with vinyl soles and I must say that this was by far the nicest to work with. It conformed so nicely to the last.
I am toying with the idea of making stacked heels for a pair of boots, though and I think I may have to switch to a different leather if I want to be able to cut and sand it well, as the goat is very stretchy. But I have some veg. tanned calf of a similar thickness lying around and that is very firm, so that may be an option. It would take edge treatments better anyway.

I see many more experiments in my future.

 

In all honesty, the hardest part is making the lasts. The shoes themselves are relatively easy if you are familliar with the materials. The pattern did take a few tries to get right, but once it works it works.
I do have some previous experience with historical shoe making for humans, and plenty of random leather work, so that probably helped, but I really think this is something that anyone can learn to do.

I'd be happy to show you the inside, but I don't know if the pictures show enough to be useful (Today I Learned: Lighting the inside of a small dark shoe enough to get a good picture is not easy ).

It's obviously impossible to show the inside of the egde at the front of the shoe, but you can stort of see the relief cuts starting at the curve.


And here is the inside of the back seam (or is it "hold" for shoe making? I know some shoe making terms, but not a lot in english.)

Anyway, I hope this is at least a little bit useful. If I remeber to, I can try to take some in progress pictures the next time I make shoes to get the inside of the uppers.

 

The main difference between these and medieval shoes is that the medieval shoes would be turn shoes, as in, they would be sewn inside out and the turned right side out, while these are made right side out.
I will keep trying, for sure. I hope to make some nice boots in the near future.

Best of luck to you when you give it a try!