Crochet slippers

I can't stop using felt. It is too good for feet :) This time - felted insoles, used as soles for crochet slippers

Shoemakers

Shoemaking is an old craft, but industrial massproduction supersedes it. Still crafty enthusiasts revives it :)
Local oldshool factories of shoe lasts and soles are tethering on the brink of closure. Feltmakers are a great support for them nowadays as their creations are getting more and more popular in all over the world. I joint to this by selling production of these factories in My Etsy shop Rasae . Through this I meet a lot of interesting people, who are my customers in supplies shop section. One of them is Sharon Raymond from US, she says: "I think every village needs a shoemaker, I hope you'll be the one for yours!" Visit her blog with lots of tips and ideas of shoemaking: http://simpleshoemaking.com/wp/ and her Etsy shop with shoemaking tutorials: https://www.etsy.com/shop/simpleshoemaking and her youtube chanel. This is her tutorial to show how to make leather shoes using my soles:

Thank you Sharon!

Shoe sole stitching masterclass

Today I delivered a lesson on stitching soles to the felted shoes.

Short masterclass for feltmakers, they usually make felt slippers and here we discussed how to make outdoor shoes. We met in Kaunas (UAB Partis, thanks for the meeting space).
Meeting, greeting, fingering tools and materials:

During our Summer camp Danguole have made felted shoes. Today we took them as an example and added outdoor rubber soles. Shoes were felted on the flat sole shoe lasts, so we've chosen flat rubber shoe soles for these shoes. We cutted special cellulose board to be put between the shoe and the sole. It covers the grids of the sole, they won't emboss through the wool felt.

Carefully marked the place of the soles. Applied the adhesive for shoemaking. This adhesive usually is very volatile and it is necessary to work in well ventilated place. We worked at the window. Layers of adhesive must dry before putting parts together.

Cardboard will be used to cover grids in the heel of the sole.

Moment of attentiveness - soles must be glued in the right place.

I stitch the soles with speedy stitcher sewing awl. It tightens the stitches by itself and saves your fingers from doing it :)

Me - shoemaker?! :)))

Next pair of the shoes:

And the result after few hours of work:

So soft and so warm and so made by hands:)

Supplies for felt shoe soling you can find here

Good luck with your projects!

__________

All guests of this masterclass made their fish for the Museum of Fishing in Moletai to support an artistic campaign "Fish pendants"

How to make and add rubber soles to the slippers

I get a lot of requests to teach how to make shoes. Here is short lesson, how to make, glue and stitch soles to the bottoms of the felt slippers.

1. If you want to make slippers with the hard soles, you should make them on the shoe lasts. Put your slippers  tightly on the shoe lasts and only then add the soles. bottoms of the slippers must be stretched while doing this.

2. Circle your slippers and make the pattern of the soles. This paper pattern will be used to mark the place of the soles on the slippers and to cut soles of the soling material. This time I use yellow micro-porous rubber for the heel and beige natural rubber for the bottom of the sole:

Heel is not neccesary, but this time I was making slippers for my daughter Leda for her kindergarten and footwear had to comply with the requirements of orthopedic (small heel, hard counter).

You can use any soling materials - rubber sheets for soles, thick leather, cork, recycled tire rubber etc...

Heel is 1/2 length of the sole. Mark place of the soles very accurately on the both slippers - this kind of footwear doesn't have seems, so only your accuracy will guarantee, that soles will be in correct place.
3. Grind the detail of the heel with the sandpaper:

4. Apply contact adhesives on the bottoms of the slippers, let it dry. Apply second layer of contact adhesives on the heel area and on the detail of the heel. Use adhesives according to its instruction. Usually surfaces must dry for 10-20 minutes. Then accurately put parts together.
If you glue just one layer of the soles skip part 4 . 

5. I did it outside my studio, as contact adhesives for shoemakers are very toxic.
When parts are put together, struck with a hammer. Apply next layer of the glue - on the whole bottom of the slippers and on the soles. Let them dry and put together, struck with a hammer.  
If you won't be stitching your soles, our slippers are finished.
Soling material must be very elastic if you will glue it without stitching. Otherwise it will peel off while wearing.

6. Usually I stitch soles from the inside through the slipper and sole. But this time the size is too small. My stitching tool don't fit into the slipper, so I made an outer seem:

I use The speedy stitcher sewing awl. It is very useful as it tense stitches and I don't have to make it heard with the fingers. Use waxed thread for shoemaking.

Slippers are finished. 
Moccasins are similar "free form shoes" as the felted shoes, so most of the ideas, how to make soles I found in the tutorials of how to make moccasins :) 

Good luck with your projects!

Supplies for shoemaking you can find in my Etsy shop

Shoemaking

My son had to tell about is his mothers profession during his English lesson last week. He tried to describe what I am doing. Together with his teacher they decided that I am a shoemaker:) OK let it be so :)
In recent couple of years I really focused in studying the secrets of shoemaking. Reading history, studying materials, communicating and cooperating with creative shoemakers and shoe designers. The most helpful for me were practical advices of an old shoemaker. He explained what are the most important things for a comfortable shoes. Height of counter, sole deflection, durability of materials etc. Combined these tips with my knowledge of the possibilities of felt my felted wool footwear was be made into very warm comfortable shoes. And now a lot of wearers are enjoying my felt boots in all over the world.

With proper materials, tools and skills feltmakers can make comfortable shoes. Here are few tips about how to do it:
1. Proper materials . Felted wool should hold the shape very well and not loose it after months of wearing. I use rough robust wool, which structure is not damaged with chemicals it is not carbonized and dyed. If you use dyed thin wools, then your shoes will need additional heel and toe supports.
Soles for the felt boots should be deep with an edges for stitching. Such soles gives additional support to the shape of the boot and can be stitched to the felt boots.
When glueing special cardboard heel pad or leather is necessary between the felted shoe and the soles
2. Tools. One of the most important tools for a proper shoes are the shoe lasts. They should fit the soles perfectly. If you want to have comfortable flexible shoes, shape of the sole should repeat the shape of the shoe which is stitched to it. I ordered few new models of the shoe lasts. They were designed especially for the soles which I found very suitable for felt boots:

One more important thing - strong stitches. This is easy, when soles repeat the shape of the shoe lasts. Felted footwear made on them fits perfectly - no empty spaces, no bended rubber edges appear. Well, this part of the job - glueing and stitching - I give to do to a real shoemaker, because it requires strong fingers. If you want to make it by yourself - use adhesive for shoes and leather stitching needles.

Supplies for shoemaking you can find in my Etsy shop

Rubber toe soles

I was looking for a perfect soles for my felted boots for a long time. In traditional way galoshes are outer shoes worn in inclement weather to protect the felted shoes (valenki) and keep the feet dry. But traditional galoshes are so clumsy and big...

I found the soles, which reminds of galoshes, but are much more elegant. They are with rubber toe, so the part of the felted shoe, which is the most vulnerable to moisture, is safe now :) From now on, my felted boots and clogs, can be ordered with  these soles.

In my Etsy shop you can find these rubber soles for felt shoes for your own projects

Rubber soles for felted boots

Traditional felted boots (valenki) can be worn in the frosty winter without any additional soles on the clean white snow. Usually they are thick and extremly warm.

In our wet Winters this way wouldn't be very good. So I started to make felted clogs and booties with the rubber soles for outdoors wearing. I was looking for best solutions and found out, that soles for felted boots should have a high edges. Such edges are necessary for two reasons:
1. wool felt is not so stable like for example a leather or sheepskin, so it should be put in a deeper sole in order not to lose the shape;
2. felted boots should be stitched to the soles, glueing is not enough as felt can peel off while wearing together with the soles and glue.

I do not put any insoles, but shoemaker, who adds soles to my felted boots, puts necessary underlays between the soles and the felted shoe. So the feet touches only natural wool felt, like in felted house clogs. But shoes also they can be worn outside thanks to a high, water and cold resistant soles.

You can find rubber soles and other shoemaking materials for yor own projects in my Etsy shop with a section of supplies for shoemaking

Kurpaliai / Foam lasts

Ką tik baigiau vieną eksperimentą - pasidariau kurpalius vėlimui pati :)
Ieškodama pirkti, aptikau nemažai pardavinėjamų putplasčio kurpalių, tačiau jis man pasirodė pertrapus. Vat kietasis (ekstrudinis) putplastis sunkiai sutrupinamas. Kaimynystėje vykstančiose statybose pamačiau, kad tokį naudoja pamatų šiltinimui - storą storutėlį! Gavau atraižų ir įgyvendinau sumanymą:

I have just finished an experiment - made lasts for felting by myself:)
Looking for to buy shoe lasts (moldings), I found a lot of foam lasts, but they seemed so fragile. I wondered about lasts of solid (extruded) hard foam. I saw that in neighborhood construction workers use hard foam  for foundation insulation - thick and hard! I got the strips and implement my idea:

Lengvai pjaustosi medžio pjūklu, paskui dailinau peiliu su dantukais, galiausiai pašlifavau stambiu, paskui smulkiu švitriniu popieriumi:

Hard foam is quite easy to cut with wood saw, then knife and finally to polish with large, then fine sandpaper:

Turiu 41 dydžio kurpalius! Užtrukau kelias valandas.

I have foam lasts for felting, size 41! It took me a few hours to make them.

In my Etsy shop you can find supplies for shoemaking and make your own shoes!

Klumpės / Clogs

Full tutorial and video lesson here

Felt clogs and supplies for shoemaking

Gaspadoriškos veltinės klumpės, štai kas gavosi iš šiandieninio ekspermento. Pabandžiau velti vyriškas šlepetes ant kitokio šablono - rusaičių veltiniautojų forumuose rasto - su juo turėtų gautis aukštesnis užkulnis. Rezultatas gavosi tikrai klumpinis :)

Big felted clogs, that is what turned out of my experiment today. I felted slippers on unusual pattern (such pattern was found in russian forums about felting).

1. Štai įprastas šablonas ir ekspermentinis "su ausytėmis"



Here is usual pattern for slippers and experimental "with ears"





2. Pirmas karšinio sluoksnis, pilam vandenį, dengiam tinkleliu, muiluojam,  apverčiam, užlankstom kyšančius kraštelius... Taip sukloju du storus karšinio sluoksnius.


The first layer of the wool. Add soapy water, stroke,  turn pattern with wool over, fold the edges, lay first layer of the wool from other side of the pattern. This kind of wool I lay 2 big layers from both sides of pattern.



3. Suklojus, užlanksčius, pamuilavus ir kiek paglosčius paskutinį sluoksnį, sudėlioju dekorą, šiuo atveju darau "lopus" iš reto lino atraižų, ant jų uždedu vos kelis vilnos plaukelius ir tikiuosi, kad jie ir taip prisivels. Per tinklelį gerokai apglostau, aptrinu kiekvieną šlepetę, kad apsiveltų paviršius. Nuotraukoje viena jau nuglostyta, kita tik suklota.


After the last layer is wet, soapy and stroken I add linen - it will be my decoration "patches". Cover the slipper with mesh fabric and stroke through it until surface of wool begins to felt.



4. Dabar kerpam  ir išimam šabloną


Now the slipper is cut and pattern  removed

5. Voila  :)















6. Na, "vualia" tik įdomiajai daliai žinoma, po to sekė ilgas ir sunkus kočiojimas, trynimas, plikymas karštu vandeniu, nes šiuokart bulgariškas karšinys buvo kiek užsispyręs, o ir naujas šablonas "padidino" šlepetes, ko nenumačiau (nors matyt turėjau...). Po kelių valandų vėlimo, gavosi vistiek dar didžiulės gaspadoriškos klumpės :)

Well, voila for the interesting part of job. After the last step long lasting rubbing, lots of boiling water ands soap, the formation of clogs followed. The final voila looks like this: