How I made my first pair of goodyear welted shoes - part 1

I combined the look of the Finnish beak boot and the Tornevalley beak shoe into my own design with my own ankle strap detail. This was my final project at the shoerepair/shoemaker education.

Our school had bought up all patterns and wooden lasts from the old beak shoe factory when it closed down in 1988, so I had access to those but after seeing these pair of old finnish style beak boots I really wanted to combine the two.

I started out drawing the pattern for my size of shoe and then added the length and style to the shaft of the boot using the actual boot as a guideline.
If you want to learn how to make your own patterns (and more) have a look at : http://www.thehcc.org/library.htm (Golding Vol. I )
The Guild has a library of materials dedicated to documenting and educating about the history and practices of the shoe and bootmaking trade.

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I picked a leather with a redish tinted tan. Its good to make the pattern out of a sturdier material - if its one you inted to use more than once. In the picture above I placed the pattern of the shaft on the leather so that the direction the leather stretches is up/down rather than across. This will make the shoe keep its form.

(I will see if I can find a picture to show you the directions a leather hide stretches as well as where on the hide you should place what part of the shoe on.)

Weights to keep the pattern in place so it doesnt move as you trace it. I use a sanded moose bone to trace with, it leaves a clear intendation in the leather without damaging the surface or leave any permanent lines. The knife Im using to cut the pieces with is a bent shoemaker knife. (One of our first assignments at the school was to create the leather cover for it)

Here are the front, top and heel pieces cut out. Im using a tool to mark where the seam goes. The thing with beak shoes is that you want the beak to bend evenly on both sides, it can take a bit of practice to get it right.

Its time to start sewing - I will cover that in part 2.

I hope you learned something you didnt already know about how to make shoes :)