Custom shoes and pattern matching for different-sized feet

Another recent custom footwear commission that gave me a lot of joy to make, this pair of bespoke boots is for a special formal event. I've made a version of this boot before -- but this pair needed to include size adaptations for an ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) and be very easy to get in and out of. So, I added front zippers with a leather easily-graspable pull and spent some time making patterns that allow the bold black and white hexagon weave to distract the eye from two differently-sized shoes. My goal was to have the fronts and backs of the boot look similar, with the fronts taking precedence for detailed pattern matching and the backs, underneath tailored formal pants, to appear to be similarly sized shoes.

Below, I've started at the center front of the vamp, where the zipper will be placed, and drawn the pattern of the fabric onto the pattern for one of the two different shoes, so that it will be easy for me to match specific key points.

I need to match the hexagonal pattern on these two shoes - so I've taken advantage of the elastic gusset area to split the larger shoe pattern, to be able to do something that wouldn't work as well in a fine, delicate fabric or in leather, for that matter: the shifted area of this malleable, loosely woven fabric will fall under the lasting area of the boot and be mostly hidden, but the pattern will look great on the back of the boot.

Shifting the paper pattern so that the front hexagons and the back hexagons roughly match the front and back of the other/smaller boot that does not have extra room for an orthopedic device.

both patterns are laid out on the fabric for cutting

I've used a cotton drill interlining; the white fabric does not need to have any pattern shift, and basting these two layers together helps keep the intended shape of the boot. You can see the intended distortion in how the white drill is not laying flat (bottom center of photo), but this puckering will be removed when the uppers are wrapped around the boot lasts. Going from two dimensions into three.

How this looks on the face of the upper pieces

I've used a thinner, tighter weave cotton fabric for nicely turned edges

Sewing it all together after basting the zipper closed

Did the pattern shifting work to make the two individual shoes look like a pair? This is the quick pull-onto-the-lasts check, when I noticed I'd forgotten to sew the toe caps on with the requested pale pink decorative stitch! Whoopsy.

Much later.....comparing the two and trying to match toe caps in look from both the worn and the observed perspectives. This can be a balance when the shoes are different depths and widths.

Finished custom Chelsea boots with extra depth for AFO and front zippers for one-handed donning and doffing:

The backs of the boots -- how an observer would view the footwear, and how the footwear could look the same via pattern adjustments in a bold graphic woven.