My first time making a pair of shoes

Good day everyone, today I'll be showing you how I made this pair of shoes.

I don't know whether to call them sneakers or shoe, the fact that I used sneaker soles and leather for the upper. It took me quite some time to make it, but it's finally done.

Before I begin sharing how I made it here are the materials I used

• sneaker sole
• leather
• Taping
• bontex
• maco
• frontstay
• backstay
• gum

The tools and equipment I used

• filing machine
• last
• tack nails
• Hammer

So the first thing I did was to create the shoe pattern on paper. To do this I taped round a last and sketched the shape of the shoe on one side. Then I used cutting knife to remove the shape. I then placed it on cardboard and cut it out

Now, I folded another cardboard into two equal pieces and traced the previous cardboard unto it, then I cut it out and this is what I got.

Now I used this shape to trace on my black leather and my brown lining leather (when doing this add extra space) and cut it out

Now on the black leather I paid a tailor (I still can't use a sewing machine) to help me sew one side of the taping unto the top line and across the tongue of the shoe

Then I applied gum on the inner part of both the shoe and the taping.

Once dry I folded the taping gumming it in the process.

Then I gummed the back together and put it on a last. I used silver pen to mark where it would be sewn.

I repeated the same process apart from the taping for the brown lining

Then I sketched the shape of the back on a piece of paper and cut it out. I then cut out the shape on the black leather.

Now I asked him (the tailor) to sew the place I marked on the leather and cut out the excess material

Then I used gum to put the back shape on it an asked him to sew it.

Now I gummed the inner top line of the black leather and the face of the brown (lining) leather together then asked him to sew it

Then I trimmed the excess brown (lining) leather

Now I used the sneaker sole to create a pattern for the insole. And used the shape to cut out the bontex

I then divided the pattern into two and cut out the bottom shape on the bontex

I gummed them together and filed down where they meet. Then I joined both legs together using little gum and smoothed around the edges with the filing machine

I separated them and used tack nails to hold them to the under side of the last

Then I applied gum at the edges of the bontex and the brown leather, and gum them together. Making sure the top was smooth.

Then I used gum to put the back stay and front stay

Then I used the filing machine to smoothen the under of the brown leather. After that I applied gum all over the brown leather (including the front and back stay) and the inner part of the black leather and immediately set it

Then I once again smoothened the under part of the shoe (only the leather) and applied gum in the sole and on the lower part of the shoe (I used silver pen to mark where the sole stops, so I could put gum)

Once it was dry I put them together and removed the last.

Now for the insoles I used the shape I had used for the bontex and cut out a pair from the maco.

Then I used little gum to put both legs together and shaped the edges using the filing machine.

Then I traced it on another black leather, applied gum on the traced part and one face of the maco. Then I placed it together and hit it with a hammer once it was dry.

Then I cut it out

Before putting it inside the shoe I stitched it round using a stitching awl and size 13 black thread. Explaining how I stitched it round is a bit of a long process. But since I've done something like this a while back. If you would like to see how I did it here's a link to a previous post where I stitched round another pair of shoes.

After stitching I simply put in the insole and polished it. And, that's it.

I know right. It's quite a short process. I liked the end result really much. Considering the fact that I had tried it before and made a horrible mistake, I really needed to get it right this time, and I did. Now I have a new shoe.

I believe if you read this post from beginning to end you should have an idea how some of your shoes are made. Thanks for reading I really appreciate. Here are some random pics that were taken by my cousin (she's not on hive yet).

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Thank you for reading this post your support and feedback is appreciated greatly. Have a wonderful day.

N/B :All photos where taken by me on my Huawei y5 unless I stated otherwise.