Clip Wraps

I'm busy working in the studio - in addition to shoes, I have a significant pile of wallets cut and ready to assemble. I'm pretty excited about the new variations on the wallets - I'll post when I get the listing up on Etsy.

In the meantime, one of my Velo customers asked me to do matching leather wraps for his clips. Here's a picture of the trial:


While I'm waiting for his clips to arrive, I decided to do a set for one of the Velo V2 pairs I'm working on:


I'm thinking of offering these as a kit: if I do this, you'd get a set of pre-cut and punched leather pieces, special flexible needles (I make those myself) and pre-measured stitching cord. No price yet, but you'd need scissors and little else besides a rudimentary sewing skill:



What do you think?

Prototype Bags and Gifts

For the holidays, I made gifts for my family.

For my Dad, Sister and Brother-in-law, I made bags. The original pattern was one I found on Burdastyle, but I made significant changes to it, adding in elements and finishing techniques I like to use. I was using these pieces for prototyping - I'd like to be able to make these for sale now that I've gotten a sense of what worked and what needs to be changed. I had to use a machine at the school to do the finishing, so if I want to continue to develop this bag, I'd like to invest in a new sewing machine, so it will probably be a while.

All of the materials were things I had on hand, except for some strapping (that I kept running out of) and some interfacing. I made one for myself, so I could get first-hand sense of how well they work. All leather with a fabric lining:


For my Dad, I used leather for the back and flap (in one piece) and a fabric with a similar feel to waxed cotton for the front body and lining:


For my sister, I used leather for the front flap, and felt for the body. It is lined in a purple cotton twill:




For my Brother-in-law, I used a navy blue garment leather I'd been hoarding for years and black trim. Since they were the colors of Cobra from the G.I.Joe comic, I decided it was time to use a patch I picked up from a comic shop many years ago:


All of them have a drawstring to prevent water from getting into the body when the flap is down, but they can open up wider for ease of access.

As they are now, the bags are one big compartment - I installed snaps for combining accessories like pockets (to be designed later).

For my Mom, I knitted this hat - it's another of the first hat I knitted for myself. I'm kind of obsessed with some of the elements in the design:


I've been continuing to knit. With my energy level low for a while, I spent a lot of time knitting various personal projects. I've really become addicted to it - I haven't started designing original pieces yet, but I'm getting confident that I can start putting to paper some ideas I've had floating around in my head.

Simple Sandal Project, plus an inquiry

As a demonstration for my students, I documented the creation of a simple pair of sandals.

When i first started learning about shoes, this was a project we were required to do, as a way to get us familiar with the landscape of the foot.

And anyways, footwear can't always be complicated, can it?

On another note, I've been flirting with some simple projects- not brilliant design, but stuff that's fun and close to my other interests. I've made a pair of leather handlebar grips:

They are very crude right now, but let me know if this is something you are interested in.

Original Folding Boot

I was rummaging around my old photo files and found some old work. Below are some pictures of the original model for these boots:


The original models were done with the same Italian leather for the vamp, but the outer shaft is in a locally made garment leather and lined in blue and pink plaid flannel!


I had a lot of fun with the materials.

I'm also throwing in a picture of another pair in progress: