I still have a tremendous frustration with getting lasts that match my feet.  Winter’s coming and all I have to wear is a poorly fitted pair of expensive custom boots.  Honestly, the 10th century shoes I made are more comfortable, though they rub the ends of my toes, have zero support and are worthless in the wet.  If I can get lasts made I can remake the boots into something that will work for me and be worth close to what I paid for them.  I can also make shoes for everyday wear that are comfortable.

Not my foot, cast in RTV Silicone

So, I’ve been doing more research.  I found a  guy who made shoe lasts out of A20 RTV silicone rubber.  Hmm.  To make a mold to accurately reflect the shape and size of the foot, the foot should be weight bearing during the casting phase but that’s the only issue I have with his method.

I want to make a clay base to stand on, then pour the alginate around my foot while standing on the clay pad.  I don’t need to come up my leg as far as he did.  Using clay for the bottom should give me a reusable 2 part mold, though alginate is  not a product I expect to hold up for long.  There’s a potter on Main in Chehalis.  I’ll stop in and see if I can buy a couple pounds of worked clay.  If not I can stop and dig some out of a bank somewhere.  It’ll take longer to get it ready but it will work as well.  It’s been decades since I’ve wedged clay but I haven’t forgotten how.  I have Plaster of Paris for a wedging table and enough scrap lumber to knock one together.

Once the casting is done I’ll add material around the toes until I have models I can make molds from whenever I need to.  I can get 2 part fiberglass resin for permanent molds.  Lorr says he’s got a casting material that mimics spruce.  That’ll be a good test material for lasts.

I occasionally toy with the idea of carving my own lasts.  I’d need more chisels and gouges than I’ve got.  I wouldn’t start from scratch.  I’ve got 5 pair of women’s lasts I can cut apart and scab material to to get the right width.  With the models of my feet to work from I think I can get really close to what I need.  It’s a lot of unnecessary work if I can get molds made and find the right casting material.

Wadly visited the neighbor to see if he could cull from his wood pile the right type of wood for lasts.  I’ve given up trying to find commercial lasts the size of my feet.  I’m going to try to make them.  This should be fun.

Boots!

I’ve got two pair of clogs made by Mark Casperson at Multnomah Clogs in Portland Oregon.  I got an email from him today about a new blog he’s started.  I just had to check it out.

Boots!  Mark’s making boots!  How cool is that?!  I think I’m going to have to have a pair of those . . .

I still haven’t gotten around to sending my boots back to be resized for my fat little feet.  I admit to being slow . . . not just in getting them packaged up and sent back but also in connecting the dots on how to fix the problem.

My boots went to town to Sunshine Shoe Repair (Korean guy and his wife, really nice people) and he put them on stretchers for four days.  I got them back and they were better but not enough so I planned to take them back and have them stretched some more.  Then something I watched months and months ago finally clicked.  Duh.  I’d seen a video wherein a young lady showed how to use ice to stretch shoes.  She was stretching peep-toe heels, but why wouldn’t the same concept work for my boots?

I put water in a couple of sandwich bags, stuck them into my boots and put them in the freezer.  Yup, that was better but still not enough so I did it again.  MUCH better on the right, but the left is still tight.  I’ve got my thinnest wool socks on (lime green with white and pink polka dots) and I’ve been out in the snow!  How cool is that!?

Felted wool boots

I don’t know if you can really call these “boots”.  They won’t keep moisture out but they’re really comfy and healthy for me feet.  I wear them ALL the time.

The uppers are the tops of a pair of felted wool slippers made especially for me by Cindy Gleason.  I wore those slippers until I wore the bottoms out.  No, I don’t hoard things but I also don’t throw out something I might be able to use in another way.  Cindy went to a lot of work to make these for me and the only worn out spots were the parts I walked on.

At some point the light came on and I harvested the soles from a pair of kids’ slippers I got max cheap at Target (cardboard between the foam sole and felted top was a dead giveaway) and had worn until the uppers fell apart.

I pulled everything off  the soles, trimmed them to more closely match my feet, attached my anti-arch supports (I need support on the outside of my foot, not at the arch) and covered the works with a layer of leather.  Then I  trimmed the worn out bottoms off the felted wool slippers, serged the cut edge and hand stitched the felted wool uppers to my prepared soles.

I wear them with Smartwool socks and stay out of puddles and wet grass.

I’m still working on the finding/getting/making-lasts-that-match-my-feet thing.  The three pair of lasts I got through Ebay don’t in any way resemble the feet I have.  I think they could be split and pieced to make a pair my size, though I suspect that would be an awful lot of work for little reward.  I’m really ambivalent about that. Part of my problem with that is I don’t have all the tools I need.

There’s a guy online who cut his own lasts out of blocks of wood.  I remember the photos being on one of the online photo galleries, you know the ones where you can sign up for an account and they host your pictures.  He used all sorts of hand and power tools and ended up with decent looking lasts that pretty much matched his feet.

In talking to our son, it appears he may have the perfect solution.  He has an epoxy that cures to the consistency of spruce, light, strong and workable with hand tools.  How cool is that!?  I just need to make mold of my feet with added room around the toes.

Did you know you can buy plaster impregnated socks?  I ran across them in my search for casting material.  They’re unreasonably pricey but isn’t that an interesting idea?  The plaster socks came with a plastic strip to stick to your leg.  Once the plaster is set they used bandage scissors to cut it off using the plastic strip as the guide.  Because the sock/plaster layer isn’t very thick it didn’t get as hot as sticking your foot in a plaster bucket.  That’s a plus.

There has to be a fairly simple method for making molds using socks and plaster of paris.  I wonder if it’s possible to rub dry plaster of paris into a sock and end up with something that could be used as a mold.  You know I’m gonna have to try it . . . I have a whole sack of cotton socks (white and tan) I don’t wear and a 3 gallon bucket of plaster of paris.  Perfect testing material.

What if I split a pair of socks down the back to the top of the heel and sewed in something that would allow me to . . . hmm . . .  I can see I have something here . . . I’m just not sure what.  I only need them to come up to the bottom of the ankle bone.  Maybe material flanges that I can clamp closed at the back of my foot.  I have plenty of socks to test on.  We’ll see how it goes.

At some point I’ve got to get started on this project.  I have the pattern, I have the material and tools for making shoes but before I can start I have to have lasts that resemble my feet.  I thought I was going to be able to get lasts made.  I contacted Bill at Global Footwear Solutions and had my feet scanned but never heard back from him.  I talked to him, sent emails . . . no joy, no lasts.  <sigh>  It was a bit frustrating but not a total waste of time.  I learned stuff.  That’s always good.

Inside of foot (click to enlarge)

I’ve settled on a shoe design for my first solo attempt at shoe making.  I’ve got the lace-up bit set to the inside of my foot as my instep is so high lacing over it is uncomfortable.  I don’t want the lacing to the outside because they invariable provide an opening for moisture and they’re more difficult to lace.

Outside of foot (click to enlarge)

I’m still short some barge cement and some buckram.  I also need a skiving knife, though I can use what I’ve got for skiving for now.  I need a good honing stone.  I can pick one of those up in town.  I’d like some thermoplastic for the toe box . . . don’t know if that’s possible.

I have three pair of wooden lasts on the way I’m hoping to be able to alter to fit me.

The pattern mockup (click to enlarge) I like this pattern really well. You can see I've already made one adjustment to the pattern (pin). And I've got the lace opening moved to least sensitive the spot on my instep.

I’ve got enough leather for all the pattern pieces.  I got a box of heavy chrome tanned leather remnants for soling from a place back east that makes motorcycle bags.  All the pieces are big enough to be usable for soles or heel counters, which is great and the price was excellent.  I’ve got a mess of different types of softer leather from our local glove factory for the upper pattern pieces.  I have a good selection of undyed and dyed.

We’ll see how it goes.

Cordwaining is the art of making shoes.  I am seeking to embrace this art form.  How’s that for pretentious?  <LOL>

I have a bit of a problem with shoes as I wear an impossible size.  Friends say my wide little feet require boxes with laces, and they aren’t far off.  I can’t tell you where I got these ridiculously small feet.  My mother and father both had normal sized feet.  All my brothers and sisters . . . okay, I lie.  My sister has the same size feet, but for some reason I cannot fathom she’s able to wedge her feet into production shoes.  Baffles the heck out of me.  I can’t.  Well, I can, I just can’t walk comfortably when I do!  Ugh!

My 10th Century shoes

So I’m seeking to make shoes for myself.  I’m in the middle of a shoemaking workshop put on by Trackers NW.  It’s a good workshop, though I know I’m driving the instructor mad (I cannot deny my nature).  By the end of this coming weekend I should have a pair of shoes that fit to show for my effort.  Tenth century shoes, but shoes never-the-less.