With Instructables you can share what you make with the world and tap into an ever-growing community of creative experts.
This is an instructable for making your own pair of shoes with materials you can buy in an art store or a fabric store. I base my technique off of tra...
The most important step in any project is the design phase. Think about the type of shoe you want to make and do some sketches. For my shoe, I ended ...
We need to make a last before we do anything. A "last" is a hard, usually wooden, object that shoemakers build their shoes around. Lasts look like fe...
Making lasts is a great way of ensuring a perfect fit for your feet. For this process, you will need alginate to make a mold of your foot, a casting m...
Time to make your mold, which is a negative of your foot. Alginate can be found at most craft stores. It's non-toxic and good for single-use molds. I'...
Remove your foot from the alginate mold. Be careful as you do this; the alginate will hold well, but you don't want to rip chunks off. If you are wor...
You will need about 5 cups of your casting material for an average male shoe size (estimate). I am going to use Permastone, which is inexpensive and m...
When your material is dry, take apart your box so you have a big cube of alginate. Don't be shy: tear your alginate apart to reveal your mold. Don't ...
Following your shoe design, crumple up tape and add it to the front on your cast to round off the end as you desire. It is important that you are sat...
Wrap your entire last in two or three layers of masking tape (You need to cover the bottom of the last too!). Then, carefully draw the patterns for y...
Remove your patterns (careful not to tear them) and flatten your 3-D patterns into 2-D patterns. If you need to, cut darts (triangles) into the extra...
Trace your patterns on paper. Add a 1/4" seam allowance on all your patterns. If you are a new sewer, you may want to add even more allowance so tha...
In the last step you drew your patterns on paper, and then drew an extra seam allowance. If we left things here we'd have a problem: when stitching t...
Arrange your patterns on your fabric. Using either tape or pins, stick the patterns onto the fabric. Using a pencil or marker, lightly outline the pa...
You now need to sew all of your patterns together. If you aren't familiar with sewing, check out these next few steps for help. There are two ways yo...
Sew your patterns back together can be straightforward if you know how to sew. If you don't here are some tips. *Before you begin, know which side wi...
Once you've finished a stitch tie it off. The way I do this is by beginning a simple knot and then using my needle to guide the knot down close to th...
Messing up sucks, but you can easily avoid problems if you constantly refer to your design and use your last as reference.
Leather is pretty tough to stitch through, so if you're using leather and you don't have a capable sewing machine, I recommend banging your holes into...
Sew your pieces together until you have the two separate layers: the outside pattern and the inside pattern. Now, you'll need to sew the inside patte...
Make sure your sewing is neat and tight and when you have finished going completely around the ankle and the sides of your vamp (where your shoe laces...
Don't forget about the shoe tongue! To make this you'll want to take your two shoe tongue pieces, the outer and inner, and line them up, their wrong ...
Before we move on to the sole of the shoe we need to add eyelets and laces to the "upper." Eyelets are the holes where your laces will be threaded. ...
Put your last inside your upper to fill its shape in. Pick a pair of laces you're happy with and tie your shoe for the very first time. Don't tie it ...
We are going to move on to the shoe sole. There are three parts of shoe soles. 1) The insole: this is the part of the shoe that your foot comes in co...
Soak your cork/leather sole in water for 24 hours. Tie your sole to your last tightly so that it conforms to the shape of your foot. Set it in the su...
Hold (or secure) your insole to the bottom of your last. Since you left some extra material around your foot tracing, you should have some paring to ...
Cut out another sole. Then, cut a ring out of the sole about 1/2" from where your sole begins (see the photos). Affix this ring onto the bottom of y...
Put your insole and last into your upper (with its laces tied). Because your patterns continued onto the bottom of your last, you should have extra fa...
Once you've completely sewn around the shoe sole you should have some excess fabric. Use your utility knife to shave this fabric off. Your shoe is co...
Remember those sole pieces I told you to keep a few steps ago? Glue them into your sole now! You may have some problems putting the outer ring on, so...
If you want a heel or some treads just add another layer of cork or leather!!
Add a final, thinner layer of cork or leather (the normal width is fine for that) to cover all the work you did affixing the sole to the upper. I use...
Woo! Your shoe is officially done! Put it on and see how it fits. The shoe I made with cork was extra light and flexible, but still pretty classy loo...
Remove these ads by
Signing Up
PDF Downloads
As a Pro member, you will gain access to download any Instructable in the PDF format.
You also have the ability to customize your PDF download.
Visit Our Store »
Go Pro Today »
Whether one way is better depends on the type of shoe you want to make.
If you care more about your shoe giving your feet room - especially if your feet are wider - I'd say put your foot against the bottom of the box, since your feet expand when you put pressure on them.
Then again, if you want the traditional shape of a shoe, you'd probably want to leave your foot suspended to get the full curve of your sole.
I personally don't think that shoes need to have arch support that the traditional shoe shape gives, but it's up to you! I put this instructable up because the basic instructions are there to guide *you* to make *your* choices for a great shoe.