Buttonwoods Heels & Blue Bespoke Boots

final sketch that turned out to not be so final

I've previously made a version of these dark blue boots, in a caramel brown leather with contrast dark brown and turquoise stitching. This client wanted my same design but in a much more subtle palette, which ended up being a gorgeous oil-tanned Horween leather and just slightly lighter blue thread. I was excited to make them again, for several reasons: I'd recently been asked to participate in the virtual version extension of the Buttonwoods Museum Footwear Artist in Residency Program, I love making my own designs again and changing bits and pieces to tailor them for the specific person ordering. I appreciate a chance to push skills I don't often practice.

I don't often crimp leather. I should have a crimp break, but don't (feel free to email me if you know if one for sale!) The first (brown) boots with this vines motif that I made a few years ago had a crimped vamp but I put a seam in the back -- and there was a side elastic gusset. With these, I decided to eliminate the seam in the back and just make the boots two-piece with a side zip. In the drawing before, you can see I was first planning to add a small center front gusset.

How did that all go? It took a while. The theory is, you get the leather wet and then stretch it into a curve using crimp boards and muscle and time. I was taught to use a curved string nailed to a piece of wood to crimp vamps. It (only) works if you are strong and have flexible leather and a vamp pattern that is a lot easier to put a curve in - like most of the boots out there, with a tongue-shaped vamp and not a broader 'wellington' ish one.

After the leather was stretched into a 3D curve, I marked the vines motif. I enjoy this vine pattern because there is no attempt at making it symmetrical -- it's the line-vines I drew on paper, more of a sketched version than a real plan, the way drawing or actual vines happen.

Beginning the decorative vine stitching, with a plan for how to stitch it all in one go, doubling back on seperate tendrils so that it can be done without needing to break the thread.

You can see how the leather pieces don't lay flat on the table any longer, because of the previous crimping that alters the shape into a curve.

Fast forward: I've finished sewing the uppers for these custom boots together, including the side zipper, and have tacked then onto the lasts, which takes a lot more of the stretch out of the leather. Next I'll mark where the two rows of stitching go at the toe area (note the paper pattern on the floor) and untack the uppers...and take then back to the sewing machine to sew those little rows on.

The decorative toe-cap stitching is on, and here's the heel I'm using -- a Buttonwoods Museum heel. I love the sweet angled breast on these heels, just a little jaunty. Mid-century?

I now have a small collection of wood heels as part of the Buttonwoods Museum virtual Footwear-Artist-in-Residence that I was asked to be a part of, and I hope to use more of them as the years go by. Below is a selection of what I received from Sarah Guerin, the inaugural (non-virtual!) FAiR, a bespoke bootmaker who spent time/endless hours researching and cataloguing the Museum's collection. Then, she sent other shoe- and bootmakers tools and supplies from the collection, so that they would be used and not be left idle in storage. A beautiful and extremely generous idea, especially given that so many tools and supplies for our trade are simply not made any longer, or if they are, the shapes and materials are different. Here's to a world of greater generosity - hopefully soon.