My 6th Pair - Completed

 

For those that follow my blog regularly and have been anxiously waiting the completion of my 6th pair of bespoke shoes (that I have made for myself), here you are! (For those new, you can read HERE to see the post prior to this, showing pics during the making process) This shoe has taken me forever to make, and I am so glad that they are finally done. Starting in the beginning of October, last year, and just now getting them finished, was making me incredibly anxious, in the bad way. They unfortunately sat in my flat for many months, waiting to be finished. They collected a lot of dust, adding to the already super dirty top part of the tongue. But now that is all behind me and I am already thinking about my 7th pair, which will either be a full brogue from G&G's range, or a completely new style, designed by myself. I am hoping to start on that new style of mine, which I will be excited to show everyone to get some feedback on. They only thing is that I have to create a new last, learn how to make the pattern for my design, and then actually make the shoe, doing all of this in my spare time, which is far and few between these days.

Being suede, this shoe had it's up's and down's during the making process. The first problem, was the bag that covered the shoe (for the making process) did not cover the entire tongue, so when I pulled the bag off, it was literally brown, from all of the dirt and dust. I had to use sandpaper to clean it, but was not able to get it back to it's original color, but considering that my pants will cover it, it's not really a problem for me. The second issue was not be able to dye the soles, because it is extremely hard to get it perfect and not have the dye seep through the bag. So I had to leave a natural sole, which let me tell you, is hard getting right. As you can see, my left and right heels turned out different colors in respect to each other and I suspect that was because the heat of the heel iron, being hotter while I was applying it to the darker sole (burning the wax) and cooler on the left heel.The upside to the shoe being suede, was that it was damn easy to last (pulling the leather around the last), which always makes for a pleasant experience. 

When I first got the upper, it was a monk but without a buckle or anything else to hold it down, so instead of just doing what everyone else might, I thought that I would be unique and add a fastened button. Not just wanting to using any type of jacket button, I went for that metal, emblem encrusted button. It was not easy finding someone to actually sew it on either. Creating a button hole on leather is not easily done by hand, and I could not find anyone who could do it by machine. But thankfully my good friend, who is an Italian master tailor, braved the tough task and it came out beautifully. So there you are: my 6th pair completed and now on to my seventh, hopefully being from my own design!