Mmmm leather

There really is nothing like leather it just feels luxurious and smells wonderful to me. I don't have photos because they don't really photo that well. I got 5 hides from Ebay Black Nappa leather 3 of them are 1.6oz and the other too are about 1.2oz.

Indie Pattern Lines

Is it just me or is every sewing blogger and their dog planning to launch their own pattern line. They do know it's not eat right. Just because you can design something cute and make it yourself including the "pattern" and can do pretty things with photoshop doesn't actually mean your at that point. Considering that many are self taught or only have limited industry experience its a kinda bad starting point.

Why? Because pattern making is both an exacting technical skill and an art. It can many years of working in the industry to get to a true competency of all the skills need to launch a successful pattern line. I'm not and never will be there so its not "sour grapes" on my part. I actually like when people succeed it opens up more opportunities not less.

I guess my main point is it SEEMS easy when you don't know what your doing. Also doing production pattern making is different than making a product for consumers to use. Why? Because the factory will make it exactly the way you tell them too and use a standard set of techniques every time. By the time it hits a production floor ALL the decisions have been made versus a home sewing pattern which is a paper bag of possibilities.

Anyways check yourself before you wreck yourself. At least though DIY your own indie line nowadays doesn't require as much money. You just need to be able to create a nice PDF so at least people won't be bleeding money to live the dream but it does mean that because the barrier to entry is low the market will become flooded with poor quality patterns.

The proof is in the pudding

Inner Foot

 My feet aren't getting bigger over the years the shoes are getting smaller. In high school I wore a size 7 no problem sometimes a 6.5 or a 6 is I was feeling masochist. I put some weight on an my feet spread a little so my shoe size kept on ticking up and up and up until I was averaging a 9.5. Well with making my own shoes my shoe size is dropping again. This last prototype I made was a 8C from a last made in 1958. Too big though once made with a lining and stiffeners and a cushy insole will be perfect. 

Outside Foot

The pictures show the process of making a test fit prototype from that last. I make it in just a single 3oz leather and a cardboard sole. Normally I wouldn't be so fancy but took this as an opportunity to practice some of my skills including lasting and finishing.

The first photos show the upper which has been simply finished with zigzag back seam with the edges butted together and no seam allowance lasted over a cardboard midsole and held in place with handtacks. 

The upper is lasted in a certain order to provide the best results and then left to sit a while. The tacks then are removed a few at a time and the upper is glued to the midsole using cement. I use Master All Purpose All Clear Cement.

Once that is dry you trim the leather back, skive down any wrinkles. I used a french edge skiver for the big wrinkles and lightly sanded with a rotary tool. This evens down things and also provides a good surface for gluing.

Once at that point I stuck on a cardboard sole made out of cardboard. I used the same pattern as the midsole so it doesn't quite cover as much as it should if it were a real sole. The sole should be about 1/8" bigger all round to accomodate the lasting allowance. Similar to turn of cloth in tailoring.

I also made a little stacked heel out of cardboard 3/16" thick by just gluing about 5 pieces together and cutting a heel shape and sticking it on and then sanding round.

The voila a prototype shoe that passes muster. Now onto the real thing.

Words of Wisdom from the intertubes

Pattie from dressurdolly2 says

I'm always amazed when threads like this spin in this direction:

I have an opinion

I have a differing opinion

You are defensive and I now have an advantage over you with my better way of doing things 

I like to rant. I really really do. RE: Trudy from Hotpatterns

But usually I only rant at people who are themselves ranting attempt to point out some hypocrisy or some such thing. This week is Trudy from Hotpatterns. Not sure why I continued to buy her patterns because always there seemed to be some drama involving my orders. The first when they began and my preorders got cancelled. The lastest when I wanted to do some sewing while recovering from surgery when my order arrived after 3 weeks (2-3 day shipping offered) and they sent me the wrong ones. The replacements took forever to show up. The envelope pictures are never printed nicely and the fit is huge in the shoulders over all sizes since I've gotten fatter and fatter as I've used them.

But I still continued to buy. Fast forward to today. I noticed on her "Trudy Hotpatterns" page that she had posted her weekly customer email. Not the first time she has done this. Basically she posts personal emails from a customer that she finds offensive.

Most of them were not that bad this weeks one was very mild. Basically a anxious rambling customer sending a long winded email. She was just concerned that she was going to spend $16 on a pattern that wouldn't look like the illustration (none of them do) and were there anymore pictures out there that she could see because she had looked at the reviews and they didn't seem that good and the shoulders looked odd. I've sewn the particular pattern and for me the shoulders were too wide. No biggie I can fix this but this customer wasn't at that stage.

I wish I could post it but it was already deleted by the time I decided to blog. Basically a customer who had done a lot of product research but needed some reassurance. Thats the time when a business owner should either go into sales mode or just ignore it. DON'T post it on the internet under your business persona. Stupid. I feel that when customers email a company that there is some assumption of privacy that there correspondence won't be used in a public manner unless agreed upon. Especially not uploaded in a public forum for mocking purposes. Not very professional.

I posted two very mild things in reply. First was it sounded like the emailer had a lot of anxiety. The other post was simply stating the fact that she had posted that in public made me feel icky. Someone else replied something similar and both our posts were deleted and we got sent a message saying she could do whatever she liked on her personal page and if we didn't like it we could leave. FYI her last name is Hanson not Hotpatterns so its not exactly your personal page especially when her only information is that she is the CEO of Hotpatterns and she primarily posts business related postings.

I posted this to that now deleted thread and also crossposted on my own Facebook page and this is what I said.

To Trudy Hotpatterns

I guess you already deleted this. Luckily facebook emailed it to me

"Trudy wrote: "Natasha Estrada and Michelle Michelle Roach Egide I am entitled to post what I want on my personal facebook page . If you don't like it feel free to leave."

Is Hotpatterns your last name? If so its not really your personal facebook. I've been a fool all these years continuing to buy your patterns even though I have never had a good customer service experience with shipments taking forever, wrong patterns sent and orders cancelled.

By posting her personal email to you under your "business owner personality page" you have violated her trust and privacy. If I posted an email from one of my patients I would be flamed to death, fired and possibly fined. Your running a business and you just lost me as a customer. Personally and I posted it to your FB so you don't have it. Xposted to my status since this will be deleted.

ADDED: Nobody's forcing you to run a business in an industry/country where people need hand holding. Your doing this for money aren't you? If so I scold you for mocking your customers. Your products rely on an avid following. You know from experience you can lose that in a heartbeat.

I am originally from NZ and am the daughter of an Englishwomen so I know where this attitude of "how silly American's are and they should just suck it up" comes from I do. Unfortunately this is America and your running a business where people expect customer service and they have acknowledges that their attitude has been a problem in the past customer service wise. But they haven't learnt. They are not the only Indiepattern game in town and certainly not the best at it. So drop the attitude. Your customers aren't a joke and your not making and selling a product to do someone a favor.

So thoughts? The people that will usually think it's funny when you make a gaffe like that are usually not the same ones buying your products.

I've lost my heart in Shoe Francisco

Officially I think. In addition to getting a pair of shoes at the end which is the ultimate reward is y'know LOVE shoes it combines so many different qualities from all the crafts I love to do. The technical side of garment design with the pattern-making and the creative side with the design and selection of materials. The gluing and folding component of bookmaking (yes I love gluing and pasting). The molding and coaxing of the leather of the last reminds me a lot of spinning. The hammering and sanding reminds me of middle school woodshop and DIY home decor. There is of course that wonderful blend of sewing and crafting when you assemble the uppers. The shopping in the obscure little shoemaking stores reminds me of the tool hunt from weaving.

Yes I DO have too many prior hobbies though. Sewing, patternmaking, quilting, bookbinding, knitting,  spinning, weaving, felt craft, cross stitch etc etc etc.

But I think I might like shoes the most like all roads lead to shoes which is good because after all that walking you might need a new pair.

Peep Toe Prognosis

The patterns are good especially the size 8.5 ballet flat which is good which means my next pair I can just cut and go. The size 9 peeps well my toes don't well pop but thats a more to do with my short fat feet than anything else. I'll try again when I get my size 8C vintage flat last.

No pictures because the ballet flats have already been worn out and about and the peep toes I skipped putting a sole on them because I knew they would be an no go so why waste good leather y'know. I put a crepe rubber stick on sole on the ballet flats and made a removeable insole by gluing a thin eva (craft foam that you can get at Michael's) to the sock liner. They are really comfy.

The main problem with both is I chose material and leather for the upper that were really incompatible with shoemaking and it occurs to me this is a variation of a problem new garment sewers have. They chose the wrong material for the project. I have been using thin supple drapey leather and fabric and it doesn't work when your trying to make shoes. They need to have a little more heft though the inhand feel comparing RTW shoe leather to what you have is subtle. Very. For years with my sewing I was always looking for softer, finer, thinner etc. Now in someways I have to relearn and put that aside. Thicker, sturdier, tougher.

OH OH OH and my cat peed on my first pair of shoes (the green ones) I am devastated and betrayed. SO no pictures with this post.