Scandanavian Turnshoes - a quickie

I backed the kickstarter for Jason Hovatter's instructional DVD to make scandanavian turnshoes.  (DVD is also available on Amazon.)

It was a quick project, and he says it all so much better, but here's a couple of pictures of the shoes I made following the instructions on the DVD:

Pretty comfortable, but I should add another layer of the goop sole for more cushioning.  The DVD is great - really easy to follow all the steps, and these went pretty quick.

Shoe School! Laughing Crowe and Internal Stitchdown

Finally - another shoe post!

In late April, I made it to Portland to study with Jason Hovatter at Laughing Crowe.  Jason does a variety of non-lasted shoe techniques, and is a real innovator and super nice guy.  I met him at the footwear makers' symposium last June, and was very excited to take his class.  Lucky me, nobody else signed up for that session, so I got a *private* class!

This is his own construction method, that he invented. Sort of like a stitchdown, it turns the upper to the inside, instead of the outside.  Here's what we did in class....

Casting the foot in duct tape, and drawing the design:

Making patterns: 

Cutting the insole and making channels for the stitching, and punching the stitchig holes themselves

: 

Cutting, skiving, punching and sewing the uppers; adding reinforcement where needed:

Stitching the uppers to the insole:

At this point, the shoes were soaked in water and given some vigorous shaping, and put in a dehydrator to dry back out.  Then, I added a layer of foam, for cushion, and a purchased sole.  Those were then trimmed, and laces added.

These are pretty comfortable.  I think there's still room for tinkering, to get the super comfy walking shoe I'm looking for in the long run.  But these are a huge step in that direction!

Catching up - Beaded Collar Dress

I haven't posted in *forever*, largely because a home remodel project and a convention took over my free time for much of the last year.  However, I did make a dress:

It all started with a piece of fabric I didn't buy enough of on a trip to New York:

I only bought a yard and a half, although, it is very wide.  So to make that tiny bit of fabric into a dress that would fit me, I made a wide, beaded collar to take up some space.  I started with a mockup in muslin: 

Drew the pattern for the collar on paper, cut it out of complementary fabric, and attached fusible interfacing to the back side: 

I made good use of the temporary fabric pencils to draw the design onto the fabric, and beaded it.  This was the first bead embroidery I'd ever done.  I attended a workshop at Westercon given by Theresa Halbert, and was inspired:

Then it was just a question of sewing up the dress with the collar.  There is almost no scrap fabric on this dress - it's not particularly flattering, but it's very comfortable.