FMP Week 5 || Making begins!

Proposed schedule:

What I actually did: Revised & cut pattern, began making platform

Behind? Just, but I feel I can catch up in the week coming.

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Choosing my leather

Successes

- I have made a final decision about my leather. Once I sat down and looked at it alongside the Pantone colour report, I found that one of the cheap faux leathers was almost exactly the colour of limpet shell! I decided to use this leather, for this reason and also because I have lots of it, so if anything goes wrong (which it likely will) I will have enough to start again or make alterations.

- The leather is highly flexible and quite thin, which means it will be easy to work with.

Even better if...

- I now don't have a use for the expensive piece of real leather I bought. It is a shame as it is lovely, but I am sure I will find another use for it and the most important thing is that the shoes look as good as they can.

- The leather I chose is not particularly high quality. I must be careful because I have found that it scratches easily and also I am worried that when I stitch the seams it will simply split. It would be better if it were slightly thicker but I will work with what I've got.

Feedback My tutor agreed that it was a better idea to use one of the leathers I have lots of. They knew how disastrous it would be if things went wrong and I didn't have time to find and buy more!

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Revising and cutting patterns

Successes

- I am so glad I made the extra effort to re-do my pattern. Having destroyed my practice shoe trying to remove the last, I felt I couldn't afford to risk this happening with the real thing. Also, I think the shoe will look prettier and more dainty now.

- When cutting the patterns, I managed to do it really smoothly. I bought some high quality fabric scissors that the man I bought the leather from recommended specifically for faux leather. They cut so easily and I was able to get the smooth rounded shapes I wanted.

- When I redesigned the pattern I also added additional seam allowance which allows room for movement if the pieces are not quite big enough. It also means that it will be more securely fixed to the bottom, with the strain being spread more.

Even better if... - I am concerned that I have reduced the width of the upper a little too dramatically. It may now be too thin to hold the shoe on the foot successfully. But hopefully the lacing will help with this if it is the case. It would have been better if I had thought abut it more carefully and gone for something in-between the two.

- I wish I had done more today, I don't feel like I got as much done as I should have and seeing as I am already behind this isn't good! I must make a bigger effort to catch up now.

- When sewing the pattern pieces together, the leather split a little at the back as I thought it might. This is disappointing and perhaps if I had used thicker leather it would have been ok.

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Cutting cork for heel and platform

Successes

- I just had enough cork! All the pieces fit perfectly onto the sheet. Hopefully none of them will go wrong otherwise I will be a bit stuck. I have cut them out and stuck them together though, and they seem fine so it should be ok.

- The cork was really easy to cut which was good because if it had been more difficult I might have made mistakes and then there being so little of it would have been a problem.

Even better if...

- I am worried the front platform might be too short. I will have to see when the basis of all the other parts are done but it looks a little short to me. I may order some more cork now just in case because I don't want to get stuck later on when I find that I need more.

- The edges of the cork are quite rough. I will need to sand them down but be careful to not go too far and alter the shape or size. I am not sure if it was poor cutting on my part that caused this but I think it's probably what happens with coarse cork like this!

- Each piece is not exactly the same as the next which has caused the surface of the platforms to be uneven. Again, I will have to sand them down and be careful. I'm not really sure how this happened, but perhaps when I drew around the first piece I was not as accurate as I could have been.