The occasion of this dress:

1) Balls, Jane Austen Festival, Regency parties
2) Daily special occasion when I can dress up a little bit but not exaggerating. It should be convenient for walking.

I don’t want to spend so many hours making an art piece and then just hang it in the wardrobe. Fashion for me has to be practical. 

The Style

After doing many research in libraries and museums, I have chosen my favourite following styles:

Sleeves and shape of skirt: puffed, short sleeves, skirt without train. Waistband may be embroidered. No sash! (I so dislike the shining things) Hem and the front panel will be embroidered (this is going to be such a long project…)

1810 British Cotton and Linen Dress: Met Museum. Sleeve with and without filling

1804-05 French Evening Dress: V&A Museum

 
The embroidery of the dress above is my favourite style As I have taken the whitework embroidery course at the Royal School of Needlework,  this project will be perfect for me to practise those Mountmellick stitches!

My Hand-Stitched Regency Gown

Start date: Feb 10, 2012
Finish date: Feb 23, 2012
Fabric: for the size 12 I made, 4 Yds, 51″wide; Lining: 1 Yd
Adjustment points: Length of skirt: Cut 37″(upper skirt)+11″(lower skirt) instead of 39 1/2″ + 12″ suggested by the pattern

#031: Circa 1796-1806 Lewis & Clark Era: Empire Gown - Courtesy: Past Patterns

 As my first attempt for the La Mode Bagatelle Bodiced Petticoat went on very well, I decided to challenge myself for an authentic period look, using the Front Closing Gown pattern from Past Patterns. According to the good reviews on GBACG by many costumers, this pattern should be very professional and reliable and this is proved to be true. To be honest, if I have had used this pattern before the LMB one, I wouldn’t be able to bear with the drawings and wording of the LMB…Not because that LMB is too bad, but just Past Patterns is too good. (In fact the result of LMB petticoat looks great) The pattern is very well researched, correctly illustrated and very clearly texted.  I have only found very few points where the outcome doesn’t match the instruction, and I will list them below.

My fabric for this gown: Green-grey cotton as the fashion fabric, and linen as the lining

The fabric I use is a very light weighted Italian cotton. For lining I simply used my leftover 100% white linen fabric from the LMB petticoat, which is a bit luxious as that linen costs about £10 a metre :p. I took a little bit risk here as I didn’t test the pattern on a cheaper fabric first, but I was kind of confident and  had a bet on my skills. Thanks God it comes out well!

Bodice Lining

As sewing machine was not invented at that time, hand-stitch is required for the whole gown. I have tried my best to hand-stitch 90% of the gown, except for some terribly long lines on the skirt. (It’s really too tiring to sew several 88-inch-long back stitches by hand!!! :p:p:p)

Trianglel: Back Piece

The design of the back is the eye-catching part of this gown. The front part of the lining is separate with the bodice, and will hang free and be pinned when being worn.

Bodice: Fashion Fabric and Lining Together

When it came to the cord, the pattern suggested to use candlewicking yarn to make your own cord. I couldn’t find this yarn/thread either in my local craft shops or harberdashery departments in John Lewis or Liberty, so I digged some 100% cotton knitting yarn from my stash, which happen to look nice with the fabric, and twisted them to make the neck cord.

Cotton Knitting Yarn as Cord

So far the pattern has done really well for the bodice and I didn’t meet any difficulty except for a tiny mistake on page 7: when it says to press the seam allowance to the wrong side for the lining, it should be the right side. The illustration is correct but the texts are not. The second issue is when it came to the knife pleats of the skirt, I had some problem with the pleating template. Not sure if it’s something to do with sizes, but the pleats made according to the template don’t match the center back of the bodice – the right side (close to the CF) is much shorter than the left side, making the possibility of having at least 9 pleats on the left, but only 5 on the right. I had to move the template the width of 1.5 pleats to the left, starting from the CF, to make it look about equal. This is the only problem I had with the pattern.

Making Pleats and Front Crescent Tuck

For the hem of the skirt, I deliberately left the selvage side of the lower skirt undone. So here is the completed gown!

1796-1806: Front Closing Gown

I’m not very sure about the front tuck…Although it does make the length right. And also the neck cord should be hiden inside, but I think it’s ok to let them out since they add some brightness to the gown.
 

1796 Gown: Side View 1

Although this is how the back should look like, I think I’ll prefer a more high-waist back. Until next time!

1796 Gown: Back View

Basically I am quite satisfied with it and think it is a very pretty day dress   I’m supposed to wear a chemise, transition stay and a neck kerchief underneath, but they haven’t been made yet :p

Reblogged from The Last – Prescott & Mackay's Blog:

We received the freshly released London Coffee Guide this morning, telling us that The 3 Little Pigs Coffee Corner is listed as one of London’s top 100 coffee venues We are thrilled with this news and can’t wait to share it with you. Many who have come in the Black Truffle boutique to take shoemaking, bag-making courses at Prescott & Mackay downstairs might have tried our truly delicious coffee and be impressed as much as so was London Coffee Guide. The guide has also featured the Beginners …

Well… me appeared in the London Coffee Guide :p Here’s a proper one:

The London Coffee Guide

1) flat on the center part of the front panel,
2) some slight gathers under the princess line / bust line,
3) then concentrate most gathers on the back. 

Examples include this 1805-1810 gown – cotton muslin, embroidered with white cotton, lined with linen:

1805-1810 Gown-France (V&A Image Collection)

And this 1812 fashion palette:

1812 Dress

I then go on to complete the waistband of the petticoat. The pattern suggests to add a ribbon (petersham?) to the waistband to make it sturdier, but not so clear about where to how to sew this ribbon on? Also I don’t quite fancy the synthetic look of a petersham, so I have used a cotton tape instead, trimming the gathered layer a bit and then hand-stitched the cotton tape in place. Now the petticoat looks like this!

My bodiced petticoat - not hemmed yet

Back of the waistline

 
Well it’s not very perfectly gathered…but I can get on with it. After sewing the bars and hooks on, all left is the hem! Another question comes out – how should I hem it? I am tempted to go for the corded tack, and not so keen on the idea of adding ruffles as suggested by the pattern. But so far I have done nearly everything strictly according to the pattern (except for the material used for the ribbon in the waistband), and the outcome has been very beautiful. Maybe I shouldn’t risk to ruin it at the last step.

The pattern suggests to either concentrate the gathers at the back, or arrange them evenly around the front. I tried to pin them to show the two different effects before sewing:

Left: gather at back; Right: gather evenly around front

If viewing from the side they look also quite different:

Left: gather mainly at back; Right: gather evening around

It’s difficult to make up my mind which one to choose…Which one would you suggest?

Me in Bath

After doing a lot of research on the Internet I have collected some most recommended patterns, including La Mode Bagatelle Regency Wardrobe(for beginners and improvers. Although not 100% periodically correct it’ll look nice), 1796-1806 Empire Gown from Past Patterns, 1809 Day Dress from Period Impressions and Mantua-Maker… I am an experienced leather worker but haven’t done many sewing projects before, so hopefully starting from the petticoat by La Mode Bagatelle will be easier for me.

What's in the La Mode Bagatelle Package

The fabric I use for the petticoat is very light-weighted linen from Italy.

Italian Linen

I have to say there are quite a few points not clear in this LMB pattern instruction. I’ll try to write them down as I progress, and hopefully my notes will also be helpful  for those who get confused reading this pattern.

Point 1: The neckline casing. The instruction says to stitch the bias strips to the lining, but doesn’t say to the wrong side or the right side. If the former there’s no way for the drawstring to come out unless you make some eyelets on either the lining or the bodice, which is not mentioned in the instruction, so I decide to do it to the right side, and stitched the folded edge of bias with the lining as well. Fortunately it looks good so far.

La Mode Bagatelle - Bodiced Petticoat Neckline Casing from the Lining Side

LMB - Bodiced Petticoat - Bodice Front

 Point 2: After stitching all around the neckline and armhole, I’ll need to turn the whole thing inside out. It literally takes HOURS to turn, as the shoulder straps are so narrow that I nearly thought it was a mission impossible. The booklet doesn’t say anything about how difficult this will be, but just “turn”. Luckily enough, it is possible (thank God!)  to turn the whole thing as long as you do it bit by bit. A great amount of patience is needed here. 

LMB-Bodiced Petticoat Shoulder Strap after Turning

Point 3: Then it says “right side together, stitch center back”. It made me nearly stitch the left and right center back pieces together, but I soon realised that I wouldn’t be able to put it on if I did so! It must mean that the left piece should stitch with left and right with right.

Point 4: Stitch side fronts to backs with the bodice and lining opened out, then stitch the seam as self-casing. Make sure that you do the casing on the lining only – another thing not explained by the pattern.

Well, so far it has taken some time but it’s getting there. I’ll keep working on the skirts tomorrow!

从做出自己的第一双手工鞋到现在已经一年多了。我完成了P&M的三个晚间制鞋课程，下面这两双鞋子就是在此期间做的。觉得自己已经比较好地掌握了手工做鞋的大部分要领。有同学会发现，我都已经从头到尾自己动手做鞋了，为什么鞋子还是会有不舒服的地方呢？不是说手工鞋应该是最舒服的吗？

The answer to this question is the shoe last. The lasts are supposed to reflect the shape of human feet, so someone can easily feel uncomfortable if the last of his shoe doens’t duplicate his foot, which is a common case. Before we attend the advanced course, we can control the materials and style of the shoe, such as choosing our own leather, drawing our own design, and assembling the shoes ourselves, but the shoe lasts we use are still the standard ones.  They might have thousands of differences with our own feet, not to mention the fact that they mirror each other, while none of us have completely symmetrical feet.  Why Salvatore Ferragamo’s shoes were so famous for being comfotable? Of course it was because he tailor-made the lasts for those celebrities.  

这个问题的回答就在于鞋楦。鞋楦，概括来说是人脚的尺寸复制，如果你做鞋时使用的鞋楦并不是你的脚的复制品，那么当然舒服度有限。在没有参加高级课程之前，我们能够控制的只是鞋子使用的原材料（你可以亲自挑选上好的皮，自己设计鞋子的款式，颜色搭配，然后动手把鞋子的各部分组装完成），但所使用的鞋楦仍然是市场上能够买得到的标准版本，这些标准鞋楦的长、宽、高都和你真正的两只脚有十万种细微的差距，更不用说两只鞋楦完全呈镜面对称这一点，是如何影响脚有大小的同学的舒适度的。意大利近代鞋匠名师Ferragamo做的鞋之所以如此出了名的舒适，当然是因为他为每个订制鞋的名人都量体定制了鞋楦。放眼现今的世界，除了十个手指头都数得过来的那些订制鞋专家，还有哪个奢侈品牌卖鞋之前先给客人量双脚做鞋楦？

Salvatore Ferragamo in its workshop with the lasts - 1955

The second important reason for painful shoes are down to the materials. Except for those sandals which expose the wearers’ toes and back heels, bespoke shoes all use carefully selected vege-tanned leather to make the toe puff, counter stiffener, insoles, soles and heels (People who have taken P&M’s courses will understand what I am talking about! :p).  However, non-bespoke shoes use self-adhesive non-woven for toe puffs and counter stiffeners, pressed cellulosic paper board for the insole, resin for the soles and plastic or wood for the heels…How big the differences are!

导致鞋子不舒服的第二重要原因还是材料。除了露趾露后跟的凉鞋以外，定制的鞋子的鞋包头、后踵里衬、内底、甚至鞋跟和鞋底全部都是由精挑细选部位的植鞣皮制作，而非定制的鞋子的鞋包头和后踵里衬是自粘型的无纺布，内底是冲压纸板，鞋底是树脂，鞋跟是塑料加皮包面，或者木头。差别是有多么大呀..

So I booked onto the Advanced Shoemaking Course at P&M: Made-to-Measure. This is the only sort of ultimate course I can find in the market. The tutor is Sebastian Tarek, who has rich experience in artisan bespoke shoemaking and coming from the 18th generation shoe maker family background. One pair of his bespoke shoes start from £2,000.  

于是P&M的这个高级课程无疑是目前市场上能找到的手工鞋终极课程。老师是已经有十年高级定制制鞋经验的Sebastian Tarek，他的定制鞋子两千英镑起。

Simple Oxford by Sebastian

The course has two modules with three days in the first module and two days in the second. At the beginning of the first module the tutor taught us how to measure people’s feet. The picture below is the shape of my feet, with the right one slightly bigger than the left one, which is normal.

课程分两个阶段，第一阶段三天，第二阶段两天。第一阶段一开始老师就教我们如何测量脚的尺寸。这是我的双脚轮廓，右脚比左脚大——很正常，老师说没有谁的两只脚是完全一样的，谁要是一样，那他可能不是人，是阿凡达。

 The next step is to duplicate these measurements onto the shoe lasts. We use cork sheet to do the scuplture. After a half-day’s cutting, rough rasping and sanding, the width and depth of the lasts finally meet my measurements.

测量好尺寸以后，就要把这些尺寸复制到鞋楦上了。我们用可塑性很强的软木塞板来实现这个过程。经过整整半天的切削、粗磨、精磨，鞋楦的宽和深度终于和我的脚的尺寸一致了……

Once solving the issue of the lasts, we move to the components of a shoe: the insole, toe puff and counter stiffener (in Module 1).  The material for insole is very thick vege-tanned calf skin but relatively soft, whilst the toe puff and counter stiffener use the belly part of the leather, which is much stiffer. Before putting these components onto the last we need to hand-skive the edge, which is the most tiring part for me.

鞋楦的问题解决以后，就开始学习制作全皮的各种配件。在第一阶段里我们学做鞋内底、鞋包头和后踵里衬。鞋内底的原材料是很厚的牛皮的肩膀部位，而鞋包头和后踵衬是稍微柔软一些的肚腹部位。在给这些部件上楦之前都要先人手削薄边缘，这对我来说是最累的部分。

As the focus of this class is made-to-measure instead of designing fancy shoes, I briefly make a pattern of a very simple court shoe, cut a piece of silver leather and complete the closing of upper as soon as possible, then waiting for lasting.  

为了专注于手工量体的主题，鞋子的式样不是这门课的重点，所以以简洁为主。我就使用一块银色小牛皮设计了一个最简单的样式，以最快的速度做好了纸样，裁好皮并缝制，就等着结合配件上楦了。

lasting the leather toe puff

After lasting, the first module of this course is competed. Two weeks later we are going to have the second module of this course, in which we will do the fittings and make the soles and heels with leather. So excited! I have to say lasting the all-leather shoe feels so good, and the shoes there have so much more contents as if they are telling stories, which the artificial shoes have nothing to compare to.

最后就是上楦了。整只鞋上好楦以后，第一阶段完成。两周以后的第二阶段课程里我们要学习调整鞋的尺寸，用皮制作鞋底和鞋跟。不得不说全部采用皮料的鞋子上起楦来手感妙得难以言传，捧在手中凝重踏实，和使用人工材料不可同日而语。这就是我的作品上好楦的样子，看着它们好像看着自己的双脚，感觉真奇妙~

最後一節課，教室里幾乎充滿喜慶氣氛了。一方面是由於聖誕和新年的臨近，另一方面當然是因為大家都無比期待新鞋的完工啦。上節課我們把鞋面上好了，接下來就是把釘子全部拔掉，往鞋底中間填上軟木塞碎cork。逐個東西是一罐一罐賣的，產品本身就已經自帶有粘性，所以只要象抹黃油那樣往鞋的空隙中抹就好。如果不填這個東西，可以想像鞋底中間會凹進去一塊，不平整走起路來當然也舒服不到哪兒去。下圖是丹麥的Sovej同學填好了的軟木塞：

Let’s have a look at every student’s work so far! Below is Dom’s shoe:

讓我們來逐個看一下每個同學的鞋子做完這一步的樣子吧！下面這個是Dom的：

Dominique's shoe without heel and sole

This shoe with leopard patch is made by Terri:

下面這個是Terri同學的熱情豹紋鞋：

Terri's shoe without heel and sole

This one below is Sovej’s turquoise fish skin shoe, which has been shown to you for quite a few times:

下面這隻大家見過很多次啦，就是Sovej同學的藍色魚皮設計：

Sovej‘s shoe without heel and sole

This patchwork shoe is made by Sovej’s sister Angete, (yes, sisters come to class together!) and the lace for the shoe is not final, just put there temporarily for lasting:

下面這個是Sovej同學的姐姐Agnete（沒錯，她們是兩姐妹一起來上課）的設計，一般人們把這一類東一塊西一塊的不規則貼布型設計叫做patchwork，真是雙很特別的鞋子呢。鞋帶她還沒有找到合適的，所以這根白色繩子暫且代用：

Agnete’s shoe without heel and sole

(*ahem*) So the next step is to glue the heels and soles together, and then glue it onto the shoe.  After that the shoe can be taken off from the last (finally!), and only one last step to do: glue the socks. We can choose whatever material we like to make the socks. Dom has chosen the same fabric as her shoe upper, while I have chosen pig skin.  Before putting the sock in, we need to hammer a few long nails into the heels, and put two seat pads in to make the shoes comfortable.  The seat pads are like soft sponges, which are included in the shoemaking kit sold by Prescott & Mackay.

The shoes are finally completed once we cut off the extra lining material!

咳咳…大家的鞋都看了一遍，下面就該把鞋底sole和鞋跟heel粘起來，再整個粘合到鞋子上。做完這一步，鞋子就可以從鞋楦上取下來了。取下的鞋子只缺一個零件：鞋內墊。大家可以自由決定用什麽樣的材料做鞋墊，象Dom就用了與鞋主體同色的印花布，我個人覺得能夠保證吸濕排汗最重要，因此用的仍然是與鞋裡同色的豬皮。在粘鞋墊之前，先要在鞋後跟敲入長的鞋釘以固定鞋跟，還要在上面覆蓋上一層軟乎乎的海綿狀物，叫做seat pads。

完成以上所有步驟以後，小心地沿邊緣把多餘的鞋裡皮料切割掉，鞋子們就全部完成了！

Here comes Terri’s leopard shoes!
下面是Terri和她的豹紋鞋:)

Terri and her completed shoes!

And this is happy Dominique and her fabric/leather shoes!
下面是開心的Domnique和她的民族風印花布撞牛皮鞋！

Dominique and her completed shoes!

These are, of course, the sisters and their shoes! A lot of design efforts were put in…
下面當然是丹麥姐妹倆和她們的特別複雜的鞋子啦：

the sisters trying their shoes on

Angete's completed shoes

Sovej's completed shoes

The last of the last, my shoes…Sorry I have to give them a few more shots! :p
最後的最後，當然是我自己的鞋啦…給它多幾個特寫，不好意思嚕*_*

Florrie's completed shoes

my shoe: a view from the side

my shoe: in detail

They are so comfortable when I try them on.  I have to find a very special occasion to wear them!
試在腳上，別提有多舒服了:D。頗有點捨不得穿呢！

Read more:
Making shoes in the evening – week 1 to 4
Making shoes in the evening – week 5 to 7
Making shoes in the evening – week 8 to 9
Link to the school: Prescott & Mackay shoemaking class

Anyone still remembers the yellow thing I showed in the first class’ diary? Well its name is shoe last, and we are going to ‘last’ the shoe in two classes. I nail the prepared insole onto the shoe last first,  put my chosen leather thong through the marked holes on the shoe, and then wrap it around the last:

还记得第一节课见到过的黄色鞋楦吧？这两周的内容就是把皮上楦。第一步要做的是把一块鞋中底用几个钉子固定在鞋楦底下，然后把我们上节课做好的面和里按照之前做的标记打好洞，穿入我预先挑选好的皮绳leather thong（我可喜欢这款皮绳的颜色啦），往鞋楦上一套：

leather thong tied, before lasting

Then we start lasting the lining first. Nails are put onto the leather bit by bit to fix it in place.
然后终于开始lasting了！顺序仍然是先面再里，用鞋钉一点一点固定几个基本点，然后逐步增加钉子：

lasting the lining: preparations

After making sure the position of the lining is completely alright, I apply glue between the lining and the insole and stick them together, then remove the nails – it looks like the picture below. How neat! (I couldn’t help being proud for a second…) If anybody wants to know what the white edge along the lining is, it’s called toe puff, which is also lasted onto the shoe, and it can help to keep the shoe in shape. There is the other one on the back of the shoe!

完全定位后，上粘胶，粘合，拔除所有的钉子，切割掉多余的重叠皮料，就成了下图这样，多么整齐呀！（自豪一下:p）有人也许要问鞋头包着里料边缘的白色部分是什么？那就是能够防止鞋头变形的前趾垫toe puff，不仅前面有，后跟也有一块哦。这也是全鞋和拖鞋的区别所在。这个东西也是要象lasting那样上上去的，所以也颇费了一番功夫呢。

lasted lining and toe puff

It’s the turn of the upper. Lasting is so important because it directly influences the comfort and beauty of the shoe – if you pull the leather too tight you may break the stitches or make bumps between the lining and the upper; if you pull it too loosely there will be wrinkles on the shoe.

鞋里这样就上好了。然后该轮到鞋面了。如果钉钉子时扯得太紧，有可能把鞋面扯破，并有可能导致面和里的松紧度不一而中间起褶皱；如果扯得太松更不可取，因为鞋面是否光滑无痕完全取决于拉扯皮料的力度，这就是为什么lasting的步骤那么重要了——它直接影响到鞋面是否美观和穿着是否舒适呢。

shoe upper: before lasting

Keep nailing and hammering….

然后就是一再重复的挥舞锤子和钉子的过程咯。

lasting the shoe upper

Does anyone still remember the blue printed fabric that my classmate Dominique used for her shoes? Let’s have a look at her nearly finished upper lasting…
让我们来看看Dom同学已经基本上好了的鞋面…还记得她的蓝印花棉布么？

Dominique's shoe: the upper is lasted

Well, everyone’s shoes look much much closer to their final designs! I look forward to the next class, which is our last class in this evening course! Getting too excited…

总而言之，鞋子已经越来越接近完成的样子啦！下一节课就将是本次晚间课程的最后一节了，让我们一起期待完工的美鞋吧！

Read more:
Making shoes in the evening – week 1 to 4
Making shoes in the evening – week 5 to 7
Making shoes in the evening – week 10

上次我在“设计师之路：全手工英式皮鞋制作日记”里說到鞋的紙樣已經做好，開始切割皮料了。下面就是已經切好的皮子，米色帶珊瑚紅點（其實整體看來是淡淡的櫻花粉色）的鴕鳥皮是鞋面，火橘色的鴕鳥皮是鞋跟。

leather for shoe upper and heels

The next step is to sew all the upper pieces together. Some leather is very thick, my ostrich for example, so we need to thin the edge of the leather to make the overlapped part the same thickness as a single layer. The technical term is SKIVING.  Traditionally people use special knives to operate by hand, but most of mordern designers use skiving machines. Please note that only thick leather needs this process. Leather as thin as the pig skin for the shoe lining will have little left if you skive it… The picture below is the skived leather at the edge:

料子都裁好以後，下一步就是縫紉：將所有屬於鞋面的皮料統一為一個整體。我的鞋面只有兩片皮，所以第一步只要作一道直線縫合，但只爲這個，還有一個特殊的準備工作要做：削薄皮料，術語是skiving。這一步是皮具製作的基本而重要的技巧之一，把皮料反面的組織部分削去一定厚度，即方便縫紉，更主要是連結后的皮料不至於厚得難以操作。這個步驟可以用專用刀具手工削，但大多數現代設計師都會用專門的切削機器，即skiving machine。厚的皮料才需要做這個，太薄的料，如作鞋裡的豬皮，已經只有一兩毫米薄，再削就沒有了。削好的皮料反面是這樣:

skived upper leather

So I sewed this two pieces together, using the industrial sewing machine in the studio, particularly designed for shoes.

接下來要用專門的工業制鞋縫紉機Industrial sewing machine來車縫。我想我可能真的是個天才吧？只是小時候和媽媽玩過幾次家用縫紉機而已，這個是一次就搞定了。老師也很驚訝呢！

sewed shoe upper

 In order to sew the upper and lining together, my upper should be folded flat and nice to show a clear line, with the help of neoprene adhisive. Before actually folding the leather a nylon string is put on the reverse side to keep the shoe in shape, because nylon is not stretchable. Hammer the leather down and turn it over, the shoe upper looks neat! 

然後到比較困難的部分了。鞋面的外部線條是隨時都能被看到的，所以當然要小心處理。在縫合之前要先用專用的氯丁橡膠粘劑Neoprene adhesive粘合邊緣子口，同時又要加入細尼龍帶以保證鞋面不會輕易變形。要知道鞋子可是承受全身重量的物體，走起路來鞋面是處在不停被拉扯的狀態中，所以尼龍怎么扯也不變形的特性在這裡就幫了大忙。放入尼龍帶并粘好子口，反過來就成了這樣：

glue the nylon string onto the leather

flatten it and turn it over

My lining has been cut according to the pattern as well. The most popular material for shoe lining in the industry is pig skin, because its characteristics (hard wearing, lightweight, and soft) are ideal for this purpose. You can see my sewed lining and upper in the picture below:  

做鞋裡首選用豬皮。豬皮的手感特別柔軟，而且透氣性好又耐磨。同樣，根據紙樣把豬皮切好，縫合。下圖中，上面是鞋裡，下面是鞋面。 



sewed lining and upper

Finally I can sew my upper and lining together! The sewing process takes me a long time because I have to make sure the line is neat and very close to the edge. Different from fabric, leather doesn’t allow mistakes because every stitch will leave a hole on it. If you unpick the thread and stitch the same place again and again, it may break… Look at mine, aren’t they nice? 

既然面和里都做好了，下面就該把它們車縫在一起了。依照之前做好的種種標記，沿這鞋面邊緣小心地縫紉，線與邊緣僅有1-2毫米左右的距離。皮料不同于布料，車錯還能拆掉重來，因為針會在皮子上留下明顯的洞眼，如果不停出錯反復車縫同一個地方，皮是很容易斷掉的。所以這裡真是要分外小心。好在我完成得還不錯。



upper and lining sewed together

The next class I’ll start lasting the shoes! Lasting is the most important process and technique in shoemaking, as the material will be wrapped around the shoe last and nailed in shape. I so look forward to the class next week…

Well, let’s also have a look at other classmates’ work. The cut pieces below are done by Dominique. I love the pattern of the blue fabric very much!

下節課就要進行制鞋最重要的環節：lasting了。這一步不知怎么翻譯，因為做鞋做鞋，說來說去精華部分就在lasting，要把鞋料套在鞋楦上，用釘子固定并造型。所以是最難也最有趣的部分。
好，到這裡暫停一下，來看看其他同學的進度。

下面是Dom同學裁好的面料。棕色的牛皮和蠟染印花般的棉布，這個設計我喜歡！



shoe pieces by Dominique

Read more:
Making shoes in the evening – week 1 to 4
Making shoes in the evening – week 8 to 9
Making shoes in the evening – week 10