With the arrival of fall, I’m back to working on the boots. As you may recall from my previous post about them, I was having some trouble getting the measurements suggested by the pattern to match my actual foot. After adding a significant allowance to the outside of the pattern, I have decided to move forward with the duck cloth prototype. After cutting the pattern from the duck cloth, I wanted to attach the sole. I realize this is a bit backward from how shoes are typically produced, but given the one-piece nature of the upper part of the shoe, I think it would be overly-difficult to add it at the end.
As the my previous attempts at attaching soles to the moccasins went so poorly using contact cement, I will be sewing the soles onto the boots. As the Cherry soling is relatively thick rubber (6 mm) I purchased a leather sewing needle for my home sewing machine and was hoping to be able to quickly stitch the sole. After several attempts including every variation of setting available on the machine, I was able to determine that my sewing machine had no interest in helping attach the sole to the upper of the shoe.
Since my machine was no help, I am attaching the soles by hand using a tri-point leather needle and Coats Extra Strong upholstery thread. Make sure you have a thimble or other means of protecting your fingers when using tri-point needles! These needles are super-sharp and will tear your hands up in no time if you don’t have the appropriate protective gear. These are the same needles I used when making the moccasins and my small sewing kit bag and you can imagine that if they make sewing leather and rubber easy that they can also make sewing through skin a simple affair.
Now that the soles are attached, I will work on getting the rest of the shoe completed to see how the fit is and make any adjustments before making the next pair. I do suspect that I will be adding some lacing at the end to account for small variations in fit, including what socks I’m wearing that day.
As the my previous attempts at attaching soles to the moccasins went so poorly using contact cement, I will be sewing the soles onto the boots. As the Cherry soling is relatively thick rubber (6 mm) I purchased a leather sewing needle for my home sewing machine and was hoping to be able to quickly stitch the sole. After several attempts including every variation of setting available on the machine, I was able to determine that my sewing machine had no interest in helping attach the sole to the upper of the shoe.
Since my machine was no help, I am attaching the soles by hand using a tri-point leather needle and Coats Extra Strong upholstery thread. Make sure you have a thimble or other means of protecting your fingers when using tri-point needles! These needles are super-sharp and will tear your hands up in no time if you don’t have the appropriate protective gear. These are the same needles I used when making the moccasins and my small sewing kit bag and you can imagine that if they make sewing leather and rubber easy that they can also make sewing through skin a simple affair.
Now that the soles are attached, I will work on getting the rest of the shoe completed to see how the fit is and make any adjustments before making the next pair. I do suspect that I will be adding some lacing at the end to account for small variations in fit, including what socks I’m wearing that day.