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I’ve got a pair of shoes in the works. I don’t know how successful this design will be. The upper is a single layer of bison and all the support is built into the insole. The single pieced shaper is stitched through the bison layer.
The sole still needs to be trimmed very close to where it joins the upper. Once the sole is trimmed, I will reinsert the last, get the shaper wet and reshaped. This will close up the awl holes I made stitching the shaper to the upper.
Once the shaper’s completely dry I’ll paint bed liner over the shaper and the side of the sole. The end result should be a funky looking sneaker.
There are two things I didn’t do that I probably should have. I didn’t add a welt around the ankle opening. That may have been an error and only time will tell. This is something I can go back and do if I feel I must.
The second maybe oops is, I didn’t stitch the outer sole to the shaper before applying the shaper to the upper. The one person I know with the machine to do that has developed a really mean case of early onset Alzheimer. <wince> Sadly, avoid is the name of the game there.
The side rings are to accommodate a strap that goes around the back of the shoe, through the side rings and across the top of my instep to secure the shoe for heavy duty things like running after horses. The strap under the foot is, I believe, too long, but I won’t know for sure until I wear the shoes for a while.