Middle Earth Ranger Forum

No, not the edible kind. That would've been WAAAAY easier.

This has taken over two weeks, it's not finished, and I still have to do the whole thing all over again.

'Cause, you know...I have TWO feet.

This is my THIRD attempt at homemade footwear. The first attempt I never posted here, wasn't done with any kind of instructions, and was rather hideous. I never got farther than, essentially, a leather around-the-house slipper. A really ugly one.

My second attempt started as attempt number one, and turned into attaching self-made uppers to the bottom 1/3 of my old Armstreet boots. This failed, though I wore them that way for two and a half years. Ugh. I shudder at the thought.

This, my third attempt, I'm rather proud of. I absolutely hate posting things that aren't completed, but I spent the last two and a half weeks stitching this stupid thing, and I need to get something positive out of the experience NOW, before I curse the project and shoot someone...so attaching the final external sole is just going to have to wait.

What you are seeing is a custom-fit hand-stitched welted turnshoe, with a custom upper. I patterned the whole thing directly off of my foot/leg, and looked at absolutely no images in the process. In the past, I've spent too much time trying to imitate something, so this time I just went off of memory, or my own gut. Incidentally, I think it wound up looking frighteningly similar to Andy's boots, which used to be my goal. Now, it's just a happy coincidence.

The boot portion is a single layer of cowhide, a bit thicker than a nickel. The upper is double-layered up the back for support, and varies between double and single-layers depending on location/fit.

The final bit to be done on this is stitching on a leather clump sole to the welt, which will be of some insanely thick veg tan leather (currently in the form of a super-old weight-lifting belt I have lying around), and then, you know...doing the whole stinking thing all over again. I have until July 11th to finish the both of them before I head for the woods in Northern Cali with Druin and some of his compatriots. I may not have opposable thumbs by that point in time, but mark my words, I'll have a matched pair of boots. I swore I'd never wear my last pair of boots in the woods again, and I'm gonna make good on that, darnit.



So am I a cobbler now? Hardly. I just muscled my way through 90% of a boot. The rest may prove to be my undoing.

That looks PHENOMENAL, Greg! Absolutely brilliant!

I almost - ALMOST - did the same thing when I set out to make my current pair of boots, but in the end I settled for doing what you did last time - attaching a self-made upper to factory-made boots. I've been very happy with mine so far, but I must admit that having boots 100% made by my own hand has always been something very appealing to me. That being said, boot-making is freakin' HARD, so I chickened out, haha. Major respect for this project, man. Seriously. I can't wait to see the final result when they're both finished.

Greg,
It will get easier, (as in less resistance) the more you do it, but I have to say you really got it this time! Having watched these boots at each step, I could feel the battle as it unfolded and I think you battled bravely and resorcefully , constantly gaining ground and then digging in as you came to a point of resistance so you could get better "intel".
I have gone through this in several projects and I say it takes a special type of bravery and persistance to accomplish something you would like to have overnight, in a much longer span.
Way to go!

Green with envy am I! Just a beautiful job!

the boot looks great Greg I cant wait for the finished pictures.

I lost count. This is actually my FOURTH attempt. Forgot to mention the first boot-portion I stitched during the making of this one, which wound up way too tight on my foot, and has been set aside as shoe number one when I get around to making my wife some shoes.

*exasperated sigh*

Thanks for the kind words; much too kind. I'm diving into inner sole/boot/welt stitching Mk. II when I get home this evening. *cracks knuckles* Time to show some leather who's daddy.

Side Note: A bit of props goes to Pete Remling for this one...years ago, when I hardly knew what I was doing (probably around the time when I thought, at one point, that since material was priced by the square foot at Tandy, that they would cut sections out of hides like you can get at a fabric store...*gah* was I ever young...), Pete sent me a few leather scraps to help me with my first costrel project. Free, mind you. Now, that costrel is in Ernildir's possession, but the remainder of those black leather scraps are the slick black insoles that now form the base for these turnshoes, and will lovingly protect my feet for (hopefully) years to come. Thanks again, Pete.

Those look great, Greg!

Ken

I know you are going to put together an extremely detailed "how-to" to share as well.....right?

You are very welcome and those boots look fantastic.

Wow! Great work! Making boots is hard...making boots that fit is even harder! Way to go!

Brian

good stuff. It's far better then I could do

Necropost number three!

When one makes welted turnshoes with the intent of sewing on a clump sole, one should really do the latter before wearing the former for three years and wearing through both heels. But hey, now they're comfy again, and I have also replaced backstitching with the tunnel stitch as my least favorite task.

Cool!

I think I missed the original post: since the images appear to be gone, can I ask what the construction is like?

It's a turnshoe, but there's a welt between the sole and body? And then you (intended to) sew a second sole onto the welt? Is that correct?

... and until recently, you had the welt sort of floating in space, and just sewed the second sole onto it?
Where are the tunnel stitches?

No Elleth you have gotten it all wrong! Greg wanted to up his post responses so he gave us one of those misleading titles. I jumped on this way back because I thought it was a recipe for a great half crusted pie, perhaps of apples or even better peaches!,,, yeah that's right a Dwarf marches not on short legs but long stomach.

One way or the other, looks like they're holding up quite well after three years of use!