Crafting Handmade Shoes: Great-Looking Shoes, Sandals, Slippers & Boots [Paperback]

Sharon Raymond (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 28, 2002

“Covers the fundamentals of shoemaking, including pictures, sidebars with flair...and great instructions for techniques. One after another, the approximately 30 patterns proceed—each one more appealing than the last—from an apple pie-color sandal to a Sante Fe-like desert sunrise moccasin. Templates appended.”—Booklist. “Excellent book.”—Quick & Easy Crafts.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Raymond covers the fundamentals of shoemaking first, including pictures, sidebars with flair (did you know that platform heels were first worn by sixteenth-century Venetian prostitutes?), and great instructions for techniques. One after another, the approximately 30 patterns proceed--each one, quite frankly, more appealing than the last--from an apple pie-color sandal to a Santa Fe-like desert sunrise moccasin. Templates appended. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Sharon Raymond has been making shoes for many years. She currently resides in Shutesbury, Massachusetts, where she teaches monthly shoemaking workshops. Sharon also runs her own her own custom-made shoe and shoemaking kit business, Starpath Shoes.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Lark Books (August 28, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579903789
• ISBN-13: 978-1579903787
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,080,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An updated book on an ancient craft, October 16, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Crafting Handmade Shoes: Great-Looking Shoes, Sandals, Slippers & Boots (Hardcover)

Go ahead - just TRY to find a book on hand-crafting sandals and shoes on a small scale that wasn't written before 1973. This is the first updated book I have found on the subject.

The book lays out in logical order the basics of leather, working with it, construction techniques and variety of projects that use those techniques in modular fashion.

The book is easy to follow, the project instructions are not cluttered with commentary, and are concise. This book is excellent for a beginner who has had no experience in making shoes and sandals at home, and does not assume a great knowledge in any one craft. Instructions as to what tools are needed, how to buy leather and findings, and finishing are all included. Willingness to try something new and a little time is all that is needed on your part. (plus a trip to the craft and leather stores!)

The kind of shoes and sandals presented in this book are suitable for most casual wear. The style of construction used doesn't lend itself well to what most people would consider business-like or formal shoes. They will be sturdy and if you construct them well, I see no reason why they wouldn't last as long as any commercially available shoe.

Although it is not stated in the book - all the projects are clearly designed for women. But the book shows you the basics of creating your own patterns. After all - feet are feet - no matter who they are on, so with a little creativity you can design your own patterns (and choose materials) that would compliment a man's outfit, with the instructions in this book.

One minor disapointment, the book does not have a project for strap sandals. However the author has a thoughtful website and sells several additional patterns (to be used with the techniques in this book) for sale at very minimal cost.

The author also includes some colorful trivia and history on shoes, througout the book.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth buying directly from the author, September 8, 2007

By 

M. Coppedge (North Carolina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crafting Handmade Shoes: Great-Looking Shoes, Sandals, Slippers & Boots (Paperback)

From the book you learn to make simple flat to low-heeled shoes. Each shoe comes with a pattern and exact description how to enlarge it for your shoe size. The instructions are basic and not always easy to understand, but the book is a good primer. The book is out-of-print but available for $25 directly from the author over the Internet simpleshoemaking.com. The book is black and white, with color photographs on the cover and worth its price. It is in no way worth the ridiculous price asked by second-hand dealers.
I also recommend "Make Your Own Shoes" by Mary Wales Loomis, which shows how to make higher-heel elegant ladies' shoes from fabric on your sewing machine. And "Handmade Shoes for Men" by Laszlo Vass, which shows shoemaking in great color photographs, but has no patterns.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprising!, January 12, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Crafting Handmade Shoes: Great-Looking Shoes, Sandals, Slippers & Boots (Paperback)

I bought this book thinking it would be a useful tool when creating shoes for stage productions. I didn't really think the end result would be "good enough" for everyday wear. But I was wrong.

This book is really pretty amazing. I would have thought a host of expensive and hard-to-find tools and materials would have been necessary to create "real" shoes, but that's not necessarily true, as laid out in this book. Sure, if you want leather shoes (as opposed to fabric), it will cost a little, but you can make one of the more simple designs in this book and not have to invest a lot of dough. The author even suggests taking the finished upper portion of your shoe to a shoe repair shop to have soles put on it...Sound wonderful to me, although I haven't tried to find a shop locally to see if that's really do-able.

At any rate, if you want to make serious shoes, this book is definitely for you. And if you just want costume shoes, you can take the basic principles found in this book and do that, too.