New Shoes for Gabriel

The first  pair of shoes I made for Gabriel were a raging success both functionally and aesthetically: He walked and hiked in them a lot without any disrepair and he also received many compliments on them! I am encouraged. Now his feet have grown slightly and the inside seam appears to be rubbing against his big toe. So I busted out the leather and set to work.

For this pair of shoes I was hoping to simplify construction (and decrease sewing time) so I decided to try cutting the shoe in one big piece instead of five pieces like the last pair. I took the pattern from the last pair and taped it together.

I also took to heart my lesson learned about sizing and only increased the length of the sole by 1/8 inch and left the remaining edges the same.

Another thing I was hoping to accomplish was to increase function. So I stitched the seams on the outside “moccasin style” to make it more comfortable for the foot inside. In doing this I believe it made more room for the width of the foot (which would otherwise be used turning the seam inside out) which was unneeded. I will have to take this into account when I make the next pair and decrease the width slightly.

The other thing that I did with the first pair that I made which I repeated in making this pair was to line the sole with felt. I had done this in attempt to thicken the sole to help buffer more rocky terrain (such as on our attempted hike at La Jolla Valley trail where Gabriel physically couldn’t walk), while maintaining flexibility. Not only did this seem to work okay but it also made it look pretty inside!

All in all I believe we have another success!