Author: Sharon Raymond

I happened upon these shoes in the New York Times article “In Fashion: Flowing, Fanciful white dresses. They are so easy to make using my center-seam patterns. The caption said, “price upon request” so I did call and found that no one actually knows the cost, they are being made in collaboration with Sia and will be released in the spring. Looking at prices for other similar shoes, they will probably sell for around $200.00. There’s another style on Repetto’s website that looks similar, that has a huge bow across the instep. You could do that!

You could make a pair of these in every color! It seems that there are criss-cross black laces across the topline of this white minimalist shoe.

The directions and patterns for center-seam “ballerina-style” shoes are in my book, The Simple Shoemaking Handbook. Here’s a “turn-shoe” done ballet-style with elastic along the topline – it could be cut a little lower above the toes, then eyelets and a criss-cross cord would complete the look. Or, it could be made as a “stitch-in” shoe, with no visible seam. These directions are in the book also.

I enjoyed participating in the Maker Faire in Queens, NYC this past weekend – 600 vendors, I believe…I contacted my NYC friend to see if we could get together: she said “not on Saturday night, because my husband and I are going to Paul Simon’s “Farewell Concert” at Corona Park. That’s where the Faire was being held, so, we got tickets too!

Robots, LED lights, “cosplay” and 3-d printing seem to be the big draws at Maker Faires, but fortunately there is a selection of traditional crafts as well.

On Friday night there was a free paella dinner for all Maker Faire vendors – plus an open bar! My conversations were so rich, from a couple using art to show the problem of trash in space, to huge puppets, to a woman about my age (elderly with turquoise hair) who does these Faires all over the country, teaching young people how to knit, crochet, needlepoint etc. So I’ll be teaching them how to make shoes! 

I feel recommitted to the importance of teaching shoemaking, especially ecological shoemaking….

I will be demonstrating simple shoemaking techniques at the NYC Maker Faire in the The New York Hall of Science next weekend – September 22 and 23. I’m especially eager to show how simple shoemaking can be, especially when using my vegetable-tanned soles with pre-punched stitching holes.

I’ll also be demonstrating the stitching of the First Footsteps toddler shoemaking kits – a couple of groups that are in need of financial support are stitching these shoes now for sale – some are refugees from Myanmar living in a camp in Malaysia that a friend regularly visits, and others are Spanish-speaking immigrants here in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts.

It would be delightful if any of you simple shoemakers in the NYC area could stop by. It seems that most of the participants are young and deeply into 3-d-printing, LED, and robots, but there will be a section for Traditional Crafts – and so much more!

And, I’ll be vending at the Boston Mini-Faire October 6 and 7, which is at the Children’s Museum on the Harbor. Again, I would love to see anyone who has an interest in simple shoemaking.

The shoes Marina has made using directions and patterns from the First Footsteps shoemaking kit are so inspiring! Whether it’s paint or applique, she adds the perfect touch of fun to each pair.

I believe she’s going to need to stitch around the watering can and drops to keep them in place, but what a delightful applique she has created..

And here are her moccasins, so appealing in two colors of leather – and is that a mint green elastic that I see? Each detail expresses her artistic eye..

These shoes looked a bit stodgy with their little bows, and I knew I’d never wear them. I had “spatter-painting” in the back of my mind for a long time, and this became the perfect time for giving it a try. I used acrylic paint mixed with a little water so it can be “spattered”, along with a toothbrush. Of course I experimented a bit first, to get my “flick” just right, but I perfected it pretty fast!

So, on to the spattering. I started with a raspberry color, then to turquoise. The process of “flicking” the paint with a toothbrush was so much fun! I felt like I was arranging (without a master-plan) stars in the universe! It was hard to stop.

I’m pleased with the results, and these are definitely shoes that I will wear. They are nomoc basics with vegetable-tanned soles. Here’s the “before” photo, which do you prefer?

Thanks to the serendipity of working with an intern, I dusted off a “stitch-in” shoe to show him that I had made years ago, and realized it could be made by a process similar to – yet different from – other shoemaking techniques in The Simple Shoemaking Handbook.

I have now completed directions for making “stitch-in” shoes, and will send them out to everyone who has already purchased the book and have added them to future copies of the Handbook.

I consider these shoes to be more “elegant” than the funkier nomocs, lomocs and fomocs..the vegetable-tanned leather sole reminds me of Cydwoq shoe soles. And, all the upper edges are turned in, so the shoes have the look of being made over a last. But they’re not!

The book has directions and patterns for making these stitch-in soles, but I also plan to offer them in my website store – they will be made two ways: one will have two layers of vegetable-tanned leather and the other will have a vegetable-tanned topsole with a 1/4″ natural rubber bottom sole. The soles will have stitching holes punched in them using sole patterns from the Handbook, and the edges will be sanded and burnished. They will have my standard sole shape, or they can be customized.

The center-seam and one-piece flats directions and patterns in this book are the best to use for making stitch-ins.

Marina Meeker painted these little shoes for a friend who is expecting a baby, but who had recently lost her pup.  Wouldn’t you bet that these first walking shoes, with baby’s foot imprint inside, will be treasured forever? She dyed the shoes also – I’ve got to find out more because that is the best dye job ever! Ordering the white  “first walker” kit with no stars punches on the front gives the maker two surfaces for customizing with dye, paint, applique etc – I will be attending a baby shower soon, the father installs solar panels, so a shiny rectangle will be appliqued to the front of the shoes! Thank you for the inspiration, Marina.

The second book in the quartet of books I am planning is launched, The Sandalmaking Handbook. I am hoping it will help to bring on a sandalmaking revival! Sandals are relatively simple to make – I would have named the book “The Simple Sandalmaking Handbook“, to align with The Simple Shoemaking Handbook but all sandals are “simple” to make, and a book with that name might get confused with Tim Skyrme’s Simple Sandalmaking. If you purchase Neda Hussain’s E-book, How to Make Unique Leather Sandals (https://sandalmakingbook.secondskinblog.com/), it makes a nice companion to mine, as she brings much artistry to her sandalmaking.

This book is an updated compilation of my previous Simple Sandalmaking and Simplest Sandalmaking books, with color photos instead of (crude) drawings. Anyone who has ordered either of these books in the past can email me (sharon@simpleshoemaking.com) and I will send the new book out to them.

Additionally, I have copied the sandalmaking chapters from two books from the seventies, Christine Lewis-Clark’s and Brendan Smith’s Leathercraft and offer them on my website. I met Lewis-Clark decades ago, and don’t believe she’s involved with footwear-making any more, and I can’t find any information about Brendan Smith, but if either learns that I’m offering these chapters and want me to desist, of course I will. In the meantime – they’re a goldmine if you’d like to join the sandalmaking revival!

This is a shoe mock-up  made with a Peltex interfacing upper and Texon plasticized paper sole. I made it to see whether the patterns in my book The Simple Shoemaking Handbook could be used to make shoes with a low-cut topline…and the answer is “yes!”

An aspiring shoemaker recently emailed me a photo of the shoes below.  She was wondering if she could make these shoes from the directions and patterns found in my book. That stirred a distant memory, I went to my file cabinet and rustled through folders until I found it – a file labeled “shoes like Cydwoq shoes” (google this name if you’re not familiar with this brand, they are so inspirational!)

I describe these shoes as being like Cydwoqs because of the lovely vegetable-tanned soles that they have. And, you can make the shoes look as interesting,  elegant and unique as Cydwoqs are.

Briefly, the way that these shoes are made is: Two layers of vegetable-tanned leather are cemented together to make the sole. The sole is further prepared by making a stitching groove 1/4″ in from the edge of the sole, on both the topsole and the bottom sole. All stitches will be stitched in that groove, so they are protected from wear, particularly on the bottom sole. Stitch marks, as shown on patterns from the Handbook, are copied onto this laminated sole, then the stitch holes are punched out.

I will be offering these “veg” soles w/ stitch grooves and stitch holes punched out in my website store. All you have to do is stitch the upper you have created to the sole, either by using patterns from the book or ones that you have customized.

By the way, the easiest way to make these shoes is to remove the little triangle of material seen at the toe so you don’t have to gather the extra leather found on the upper while you’re stitching. However, you can make them gathered, without the piece cut out.

Of course you can make the soles yourself, using directions in the Handbook. I’m eager to help you get started with shoemaking, whether you want to learn how to make the whole shoe, or whether you want to have the fun of making uppers, then stitch them to purchased soles.

I look forward to showing you a pair of shoes I’ve made using this technique, now that I know it’s going to work!