[Steppes] Shoes for 12th Night

[Jessica Smith]

Replied privately

On Thursday, December 16, 2010, Randy Shipp <randyshipp at gmail.com> wrote:
> (cross-posted from the Steppes forum...references this shoe pattern:
> http://members.ozemail.com.au/~chrisandpeter/shoe/construction.html)
>
> I'll see what I can do. Inexperienced as I am I'm a little wary of wading in
> without someone looking over my shoulder saying, "Don't worry, that won't
> completely screw it up!" [image: :-)] I traced my foot, took the pattern to
> FedEx (I *hate *not saying Kinko's for some reason!) and, with the help of
> barely-remembered algebra, figured out we needed to blow it up 250%, which
> we did. Then I went to Tandy Leather and promptly got serious sticker shock
> and -- dare I say it? -- cold feet.
>
> There were a couple of issues there that maybe someone here can help me
> understand. First, the instructions I'm looking at say to use 2.5-3.0 mm
> vegetable tanned leather for the sole and 2.5 mm vegetable tanned for the
> upper. I'm assuming this means that dyeing or painting the leather has to
> happen after it's put together, as the vegetable tanned stuff isn't a lot
> more attractive than a dog's rawhide chew. Second, the man at Tandy's and I
> estimated that 2.5 mm leather was in the neighborhood of 4-6 oz. leather.
> And that stuff, even at the thin end of that spectrum, is pretty stiff
> stuff. I find it pretty difficult to picture turning a shoe sewn from that
> stuff inside out. Are the instructions nuts? Am I way overestimating the
> weight of leather that is approximately 2.5-3.0 mm? So, being sure about
> which leather to get for this turn shoe is a problem.
>
> Then there's the price. Ow. The leather is only sold in fairly big pieces.
> The ~2.5mm piece I was looking at as a possible upper (4-5 oz.) was
> something like $80, then perhaps another $30 for a smaller piece of 5-6 oz.
> for the sole. That's a bit a steep for me during the holidays. Of course,
> it's not THAT expensive when you consider that there would probably be
> enough there to make three pairs of shoes...it's just a lot to eat in one
> bite.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> _________________
> --Antoine
> _______________________________________________
> Steppes mailing list
> Steppes at lists.ansteorra.org
> http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/steppes-ansteorra.org
>