I do like the Internet.

Yesterday, Mamfa popped by specifically to leave a comment that she'd seen a pair of Those Shoes in a size 5, in a shop in Leeds.

Mamfa doesn't know me, she saw my post via the friends list of a community that we both visit. But she had some useful information, and took the time to leave a comment and pass it on. Wasn't that kind?

Further investigation reveals that the shoes are now back on the Schuh website, and that my local branch apparently has a couple of pairs in stock.

Hopefully Liz and I will have our wedding shoes after all!

While I'm on the subject of awesome shoes (when am I not?), you could do worse than to check out Em & Sprout's Etsy store.

Are they not the most adorable shoes you've ever seen? So cute!

The Devil's In The Details

Earlier this year, Paul and I got engaged. Presumably this means that at some point in the future there will be a wedding. So, of course, I did what any ridiculously addicted freshly engaged woman would do - I went shoe shopping.

I saw a pair of shoes, by Irregular Choice. I saw them on the Schuh website, and I went into my local branch to try them on. Two weeks later, after I'd been paid, I went back to buy the shoes. And they'd gone. No longer for sale in the shop, no longer online.

(I may have said a rude word. A nice man is trying to mail order a pair for me. He'll let me know.)

This evening I was browsing on Amazon, when I remembered that they sell shoes too! I had a little look, and I found what I thought were the shoes I was coveting. Then I looked a little closer, and realised that whilst they looked a bit like my shoes, they weren't my shoes at all.

(Click for larger)

The shoes at the top are the ones that I'm coveting. (I couldn't find pictures of the cream and gold, so I'm showing you the red in both styles, for a more accurate comparison.)

See how the toes are extremely pointy, and the strap is quite low down?
See how the heels are higher, and more shapely, and self-covered?
See how the suede is different?

These are, quite emphatically, not the same shoes.

Yet they're made by the same company, at the same price, and sold under the same name. How peculiar.


I'm sure that plenty of people will be looking at the picture and wondering what on earth I'm fussing about. Yes, the shoes are very similar. But to me (and I realise this is merely a matter of opinion), the top shoes look glamorous and elegant and sumptuous and lovely. The others look somehow mediocre and cheap.

If I hadn't seen the top shoes first, would I be coveting the others? It's impossible to say. But I know that if I can get a pair of the cream and gold ones by mail order, if they're the same style as the bottom pair, I'm sending them back.

Experimental slipper-shoes...

So, I've made a few pairs of slippers now, and they seemed to go quite well. I thought I would attempt the next stage in the experiment towards being able to make my own shoes.

In the left hand photo, the slippers have completely finished uppers. At this point I would normally attach a felt sole, and that would be it! I decided to try a cork sole (made from an old floor tile!), so you can see it laid on top of the slipper.

I tried to sew the cork directly to the upper, which did work, but it left me with several rather painful holes in my fingers from pushing the needle through the cork! Eventually I reasoned that if I could sew through cork by hand, surely my sewing machine would make a better job of it. I sewed the cork sole to a piece of drill, and used heavy thread to turn over the edges.



This gave me a strong sole which could then be sewn by hand directly on to the upper. I removed the plain cork sole, and made them both this way.

The soles are now black, having been covered with a coating of liquid latex. This makes them non-slip, and also fairly waterproof. Several more coats will be needed if they're going to be suitable for walking around outside - and of course the uppers aren't waterproof at all, being brocade!



There turned out to be quite a few problems with this pair, although now I've identified the difficulties I should hopefully be able to avoid them next time:

• The slippers are too small.
  I hadn't allowed for the fact that so many layers would take up quite a lot of space. I also hadn't allowed enough depth in the pattern for my toes. I can easily amend this for the next pair, by adding extra allowance into the pattern, particularly at the heel and toe.


• The slippers are uncomfortable at the heel and toe.
  In the first picture, you can see where the seam allowances from the upper are folded round under the sole, and stitched in place. Even though I graded the seams, you can still feel a ridge under your foot from this extra fabric. I need to grade the seams more closely next time, and trim a little more away around the curved areas.


• The sole was difficult to sew into place.
  Even after I'd given up on trying to hand sew though the cork layer, it was still quite tricky to sew the sole into place neatly. I now understand the purpose of a welt. It bridges the gap between the upper and the sole, and gives you a neat way of finishing the join which avoids having stitching on the bottom of the shoe which would eventually wear away. However, adding a welt might compound the problem of having too many layers of seam allowance between the upper and the sole.

Whilst it's frustrating to have spent time making an uncomfortable pair of slippers which don't even fit, I've definitely learnt enough from this process to be looking forward to making the next pair!

Shoe Envy.

I really must get a move-on and work out how to make little canvas shoes.

The Nice Man Who Knows About Feet told me that I shouldn't be wearing Converse any more, so I sold my yellow pair with daisies and ladybirds to a friend. I still have a pinstripe pair that didn't sell, and I keep looking at them, and wondering whether the next time I put them on they'll magically be okay for my feet.

(Note to self: This didn't work with the Doc Martens, so it seems unlikely that the Cons would be okay.)

Because I am a sucker for punishment where shoes are concerned, I've just been to look at the Converse section of the Schuh website.

Look! They have Converse with Little Red Riding Hood on them!

I immediately want to make a little red gingham dress to wear with these.

I'm not so keen on this year's ladybird design, but I do rather like this blue and yellow floral pair. I'm sad that these Sailor Jerry low-tops are men's, because that means they don't come in my size. They're so pretty that I'd happily have worn these with all my summer skirts.


Mind you, if I'm looking at Converse, I ought really to be looking instead at Ethletic Sneakers. It would be really easy to buy a cream pair and paint on them, and then I can have whatever design I like, as well as supporting Fair Trade and renewable resources.

Having said that, Finest Imaginary has just pointed out that the Little Red Riding Hood Converse are part of (PRODUCT) RED, which has a global fund to provide anti-retroviral drugs, to help fight the AIDS pandemic in Africa. I'll be looking out for that one red eyelet if I do decide to buy a pair of Converse in future.


I'm still quite a few steps away from being able to transform the slippers I've been making into outdoor shoes. I just need to resist the urge to give in to temptation in the meantime!

Everybody needs monkey slippers!

Today I have been mostly making monkey slippers!

I promised to make a pair of slippers for a friend, so I thought I'd better make a prototype for myself first, to figure a few things out. I had just enough monkey fabric left from my Superbuzzy order, so I couldn't resist using it up.

I have plans to make some more, probably out of fleece, and a slip-on/mule style with some of my leftover fancy fabrics. This is all part of the Grand Shoe Plan, but I figured that slippers would be a good starting point.

This is how I made them...


Here you can see (almost) all of the necessary pieces. For the uppers, there's the monkey fabric. For the lining I used some cream poly/cotton, which is fused to a piece of batting. (That's the squashy stuff.) For the soles, there are two pieces of cream poly/cotton, each fused to heavy interfacing. Between them goes a piece of 1" upholstery foam.


These are the upper pieces, sewn together and turned right sides out, and the sole pieces with the foam sandwiched between them.


The uppers and the soles pinned together. I learnt a few things at this stage:

• Press the uppers before you sew them on to the soles


• Don't bother pinning and machine basting. Hand basting is actually quicker and easier for this.


• If you have a fine upholstery needle.

I also left out the elastic which was suggested for the back of the heel. The slippers do stay on without it, but I think I'll be adding it in next time, to stop them from gaping.


Ta-daa! They look finished!


Until you turn them over...

I'll be buying felt for the soles tomorrow! I might also add a bit of decorative top stitching around the uppers.

And there you have it. Monkey slippers!


[edit] I forgot to say - I made these using Burda 7978 as a starting point, and then getting creative with a book about making your own shoes. Feel free to make your own!

Painted Shoes.

For health reasons which are far too boring to go into, I am currently selling twenty-one pairs of shoes. I am saving up to buy a pair of custom-fitted orthotic insoles, which basically restricts me to flat, boring, sensible shoes for evermore.

Of course, I am now seeing nothing but fabulous shoes, everywhere I turn! This month's Elle magazine arrived with a "shoes & handbags" supplement. The newest issue of Simply Knitting (where I thought I would be safe!) has a picture of some amazingly-decorated mosaic shoes. And now Hannah has been painting on her shoes.

Hannah also links to more painted shoes and clogs:

Åsa Westlund has a range of beautifully painted high-heeled Swedish clogs. Even if you're not keen on the style, there's no denying that the artwork is absolutely beautiful.

I used to have a little collection of swedish clogs (the flat kind), until an attack of mould in the hideous basement where I was living infiltrated the wooden soles, and rendered them all wet and irreparable. Now, of course, I wish I hadn't looked for pictures of clogs. I miss my patent purple pair (which all my friends kindly referred to as "those sawn-off wellies"), and I didn't know they were now available printed with dinosaurs, cartoons and skulls!

I'm not allowed to wear clogs any more, so clearly I need to be looking at painted shoes instead. Etsy has some beautiful work, from two sellers in particular.

Hippy of Doom has the most beautiful ballet pumps painted with a Hokusai wave design. She also has an adorable pair featuring the tree spirits from Princess Mononoke.

Miss Bunny's hand-painted shoes often have an Alice in Wonderland theme. My absolute favourites were these "Eat Me, Drink Me" shoes, which some lucky buyer must now be wearing with great joy.

Friends keep telling me that I should paint my own shoes, to make my disappointing orthopaedic future a little less dull. (Somebody in the USA has had this idea already!) I have painted Doc Martens, baseball boots and leather jackets in the past, but taking a paintbrush to a pair of extremely expensive shoes seems a bit scary. Mind you, it can't be more intimidating than reproducing an album cover or a photograph on the back of someone else's expensive leather jacket.

Maybe I should grab an old pair of shoes and a paintbrush, and give it a go.