After sewing uniforms for a couple months, I decided to tackle a small project for my own wardrobe: dainty little side-lacing wool boots. Quite a satisfying morning's project! They turned out great for a first try, and the most time consuming part was sewing twenty eyelets.
I was inspired by these:
http://www.historyupclose.com/gold-rush/Resources3/images/Women's-boots_1850-55.jpg
I've drooled over them for so long. The heavy motorcycle boots I've been wearing to events are not even right for men's shoes. But the leather granny reproduction type boots are so expensive, and besides, they're just not very dainty. I'm usually going for more of the fashion plate look than the farm-wife look, since I portray a seamstress.
And you don't have to be a cobbler to sew fabric shoes. My research keeps turning up patterns and directions for sewing children's shoes and light-use type shoes for adults -- slippers, indoor shoes, dancing shoes, carriage shoes. The Workwoman's Guide Containing Instructions in Cutting Out and Completing Articles of Wearing Apparel, by a Lady has patterns and instructions. http://books.google.com/books/reader?id=JCsBAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&pg=GBS.PA351
The Peterson Magazine has several patterns and instructions, usually for slippers of the dancing or lounging type, but also for this furred boot:
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=pX7NAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&authuser=0&hl=en&pg=GBS.RA1-PA358
And there are accounts of Southern women learning to make shoes during wartime, due to the scarcity of both manufactured goods and of leather as a raw material.
A Blockaded Family in Southern Alabama notes," We explored scrap bags for pieces of cassimere, merino, broadcloth or other heavy fine twilled goods, to make our Sunday Shoes, Home woven jeans and heavy plain cloth had to answer for everyday. They were sent to the shoemaker to have them soled."
quoted in http://www.blockaderunner.com/nlc/info.html
So. I made some shoes, using the furred boot Peterson's pattern, which was sized for about a 5. I compared vague measurements of my foot to the pattern I was drawing, added a tiny bit of length and widened the ankle, and that was that. I traced an insole of a close-fitting shoe for a basic sole outline. The first try fit pretty well.
I used some diagonally twilled wool I had gotten as a swatch, and lined it with 10 oz cotton canvas (more use of the tent scraps!). The binding is scraps of scarlet silk.
I cut it out pretty quickly, and messed up the diagonal twill. It's facing every which a way. The sole right now is just a painted oilcloth -- not ideal for an outside shoe, but canvas and pasteboard soles did exist in homemade indoor shoes. When I get a side of leather for kepis and such, I'll get to resole these.
Next time, I will make the toes shorter -- the whole toe cap part is past the end of my foot. The whole shoe is a little big for a size 6. I also need to figure out a way to keep the lacing edges from bunching up when the shoe is laced tightly.
