Customer Reviews

Make Your Own Shoes

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This books shows how to make womens shoes only. It's a great book if you just aren't happy with the fashions and fit of commercial shoes. There is nothing to making custom shoes that the average person can't do. No nails, no heavy duty sewing machines. It's all stuff you have at home or can easily order. If you sew already, this is about the same as making simple clothes.

I took apart a pair of commercial shoes recently and they were made almost exactly the way the book describes the process. So you will be making shoes that are just the same as the commercial ones. Have a pair of shoes you love, but they are worn out? Reuse the heels and shank, make a pattern from the old shoes and have your favorite shoes back again!

The book is a bit dated, but the ideas and methods are still the same. A super book.

the copy i have is not exactly professionally done - but used copies are listed on Amazon at over a hundred dollars, when a new copy can be had for under thirty (including shipping)

just visit the author's website, Mary Wales Loomis (no spaces) dot COM

My comments above about the book being dated were a bit off! I have a copy of Make Your Own Shoes and Handbags and it was published in 1978. The book in this listing is a more recent edition!

All I can say in my defense is that I was so enthralled by the book that I was blinded to such sundry things as dates. My apologies to the author as well as my thanks for all her hard work in making new editions over the years.

The book guides you through the whole process of making fabric shoes on your home sewing machine (the author describes how to waterproof them). It starts with a last made from plaster of Paris, then discusses the individual parts of a shoe, how to draw and cut them and then takes you step-by-step, with many b/w illustrations, from sewing parts together to fitting them on the last and shaping them into a shoe.
It is an excellent book for beginners. Every step is well described, and with the author's method you can make a last at a very low cost.

Trade paperback, 87 pp, b&w illustrations throughout.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Shoes, Shoes, Shoes

Making Your Lasts
Custom Made Lasts

Pattern Drafting
Constructing the Uppers
Forming the Uppers Onto the Lasts
Removing the Uppers From the Lasts

Assembling the Shoes
Materials and Supplies for the Shoemaker

Choosing the Outer Fabric for Your Shoes
The Decorative Touch

Making Flat Shoes

Sources of Supplies

Sometimes Amazon is just ridiculous. You can buy this book directly from the writer for about $30.00 at
marywalesloomis.com.

Whatever Amazon.