New ad-hoc shoes for Landsknecht outfit

Well, projects fall behind schedule and the debut of my new outfit has been moved up a week.  I was hoping to go to Crystal Ball to debut my outfit, but I won't be able to make it to that event so I'll be attempting to finish the outfit one week early.  That will likely mean I won't have the garters done and the cow-mouth shoes I'm working on won't be done.

So, what do I do for shoes in the mean time?  Head to Salvation Army!

I purchased these shoes from Salvation Army.  Had a nice period looking sole with visible stitching, so I thought that these would be a good starting point.

 

Step one was to slice out a much larger opening.  This was easy enough to do with a simply box cutter.

 

Next step... test for fit and of course snap a few photos.  Here is what the shoes will look like with the hose I made.
 

Next step, darken the leather a bit.  Was originally thinking black, but after seeing the way these looked with a coat of polish, I really like that look.

Next I took some blue leather from a chopped up coat, also from Salvation Army, and used it to make some strips which would be used as trim for the opening.  I had some green and purple leather but chose the blue since it matches the blue wool trim everywhere else on the outfit.

 

Final step is to add some straps.  The shoes surprisingly stayed on well enough without straps.  I plan on doing some dancing in these and want to ensure they stay on comfortably though.  I took some scrap leather from the Tandy Leather scrap bundle I had bought in the past.  I polished it up a bit to make the leather match the color of the leather on the shoes.  I used an awl and leather needle to stitch the straps on.

 I am aware that the buckles are not period and the strapping should have done differantly, but my focus right now is getting passable shoes as quick as possible as I hope to wear the outfit in less than two days.  I still hope to revisit the cow mouth shoes I started previously.  In the mean time... I think these will do.

  

This is yet another portion of the overall project which is to create a Landsknecht outfit.  Getting close to crunch time and I’ve been putting this portion of the project off for a while as it seemed a bit daunting and I’ve never done anything like this before.  I wanted to make a pair of “Cow Mouth” shoes.  In my opinion shoes are the single biggest and most overlooked portion of costuming in the SCA.  I’m hoping that this project is a success and I will consider it so if I can inspire at least one other person to attempt to make a pair of period shoes.  With no further ado, here is what I’ve done so far.

Started by tracing my foot and then sketching what I thought would be about the size and shape of show that I’d like.  I added about an extra inch at the toes because I really want a well pronounced and obvious duck-like appearance.

Traced that rough shape onto a piece of 2X8 I had lying around.  I also added a small portion of ¾ inch plywood to the top to help shape the ankle.  Odd looking huh?  You might wonder why I chose to chop the base in two.  I am planning on leaving the last in three pieces which I can screw together.  The idea I’m going with is that I want a solid last to shape the shoe on, but when I’m done I’d really like to be able to remove the last from the shoe.  Due to the odd shape of the “cow mouth” the toe is much larger than the opening.  There would be no way for me to remove the last unless I chopped it up.  I cut it in such a way as to allow for easy removal and yet still have access to the long screws holding it together from the opening.

Here are the pieces assembled and as of yet, unshaped.

After a bit of soft rounding on a belt sander I ended up with following.  At this point I was rather pleased with the look I was getting, but was concerned that the width of the shoe wouldn’t fit right.  I decided to make a mockup using the old SCA stand-bye… duct tape.

I wrapped the last in storage plastic wrap to prevent the tape from sticking and destroying the last.

I then wrapped the last with tape as I anticipate the leather to look.  This would provide me with a good proof of concept as well.  I wanted to be sure that the segmented last would be able to be easily removed after it had been wrapped in leather.  Worked great!

Here is the finished mockup.  I was right, it was a bit wide at the base.  I decided to go back and tweak the sketched pattern.  I then used a chisel for a while to cut away some bigger chunks off the sides of the ankle.  I ended up taking about ½ inch of each side of the shoe.  I haven’t made a new mockup yet to test the new shape, but I’m fairly certain that it will work out well.   

At this point I proceeded to make chop and round out the second last to make a matched set.  I suppose I could have simply used the same last for both shoes.  I plan on them being straight shoes with no defined left/right.  Rather than using the same last for both, which would have ensured a matched set, I wanted to work on both at the same time.  Since a portion of the later steps will involve wetting leather and stretching it I figured I could work on both shoes at the same time and then let them both dry.  Hoping to speed up the next steps.  We’ll see how that works out later.
The result was a fairly evenly matched set.  I’m thinking that I’ll need a little more sanding but these are almost usable now.

Finally I have period looking shoes

Date: 2010-07: Period Shoes Made From Recycled Modern Shoes (Breadth and Depth)
This is my first attempt at acquiring period shoes. My outfits may look OK, but the shoes seem to kill the whole look. These are period looking shoes which were created using a pair of old shoes purchased from Salvation Army. These shoes seemed perfect for the task. They have all leather uppers stitched to leather and wooden soles. I cut out a section of each of the sides of the shoes to resemble a more period look. I made "laces" from some silk which matched the color of the outfit which they would be worn with.

The shoes were in really good shape when I got them for $3.00 from Salvation Army. I sketched a line on the shoes where I planned to remove some leather. The uppers were made from two layers of leather. After I cut the section out from the sides of the shoes and removed the portion where the laces used to go, I hand stitched the leather back together. I used a button hole stitch around all the raw edges by simply hand stitching with a leather needle. Previously I had never used a leather needle to sew. I've always used a round needle of heavy gauge. One day while browsing at Tandy I came across the leather hand sewing needles. From a distance the look the same, but up close you can see that they have a triangle shaped point which is very sharp along the edges. I had absolutely no problem pushing the needle through rather heavy leather. I never had to even use pliers, which I've always done in the past. Well worth the money for the needles. By the way, the "leather needles" they sell at Wal-mart.... nah. It's not the same thing. They may look similar, but those work better on canvas or pre-punched holes. The small hand sewing leather needle didn't require any pre-punching.