Sarah Juniper - Showing How I Make Shoes By Hand

Roman replika shoes, calcei & caligae. Examples here are copied mainly from the Saalburg excavations

Roman
from
£105.20

Reproduction Tudor boots & shoes from 1580 onwards

Tudor
from
£157.80

17th Century hardwearing boots and shoes for the reenactor

17th Century
from
£162.20

18th Century replika reproductions of all types of footwear. Civilian & Military, Low Class to High Class

18th Century
from
£166.50

Early 19th Century boots and shoes for the discerning Napoleonic reenactor, from Ancient Regime to Empire

Early 19th C.
from
£166.50

Miniatures
from
£46.00

Contemporary
from
£315.60

Got a pirate on your feet?

Or were your shoes made using this pair of hands?

No cemented soles, no nails, no short cuts made to look like they were made by hand, just the real thing.

Now look at the prices.

Don’t you think you are worth it?

Because my shoes are!

Whipping a bound edge to a shoe latchet.

Whipping down a binding on a shoe latchet. (2^nd stage).

Are your uppers closed like this?

Detail of closed uppers.

A helping hand.

This is the inside of your shoe. The bit you’ll never see. The seam that you’ll never get to admire, or even know that it exists. I’m sewing the Inseam here; the stitch that firmly unites the insole, the welt and the upper. The upper is trimmed and the nails pulled out as I go along.

Sewing around the heel area. Always the trickiest part.

Bracing the thread around thumb and awl haft to pull tight. The other thread is pulled around the left hand using a hand leather.

Shaving a shank piece to fit into a shoe.

Is this is what is in your shoes? Only if I made them. Shank pared from oak bark tanned leather plus comfortable cork filler.
That’s why your feet don’t hurt.

Shank pared from oak bark, leather plus comfortable cork filler

Soles, midsoles, split lifts and heel lifts all cut from Bakers' best oak bark tanned soling

Soles, midsoles, split lifts & heel lifts all cut from Bakers’ best oak bark tanned soling. Superior to Vegetable tanned soling used by my competitors. It moulds to the feet.

Sewing the heels. My shoes are welted throughout. (And easily resoled as a result). Here I am using a 4½" heel awl. The remaining heel lifts are pegged on top when the shoe is dry.

Soles channelled for sewing. They are held in position with nails that are pulled out when the work is completed.

20 years down the road they look like this but they are really comfy

And 20 years down the road when they look like this but they’re really comfy I won’t turn up my nose at mending them. (As long as I made them in the first place).

A ‘modern’ riding boot in use by the maker.

Top of a ‘modern’ riding boot showing bound edge & pullup strap.

a modern riding boot showing bound edge and pullup strap

Detail of a ‘bootclosing’ flat closed seam on the back of a riding boot.

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109 Woodmancote, Dursely, Gloucestershire GL11 4AH, 01435 545675