SheltathaLore

I actually use a McKay needle in an awl handle to hand stitch soles to uppers, but I figured this would be the best forum to ask: how does sizing for these needles even work? I'd like to get a smaller one for finer work, but looking online, they all have pretty opaque sizing descriptions, like "#5". Anyone have a diameter to size chart I could look at?

Saved!

What a cutie!!

They estimated 6 months. I assume if you follow the kickstarter, they'll send updates.

No harm in giving it a try!

Relatively thick, for lining. It's also part of a turned edge, so reducing the bulk is good for getting a really crisp corner. You mean sticking it down to the glass? Sounds reasonable; I'll give it a try.

I have had one heck of a time skiving some regrettably stretchy pig lining. Aside from making sure my knives are as sharp as possible, are there any other tricks? Can I stabilize the leather in some fashion while I'm working on it? I tried putting some masking tape on the back, but it wasn't grippy enough, and I ended up with a lump skating right ahead of my knife that inevitably got cut into.

I took a class from Jason Hovatter at Laughing Crowe, and was incredibly happy - his method of bootmaking is non-lasted and requires relatively few tools. If you're in the Pacific Northwest, take one of his classes! I've also heard good things about the Chicago School of Shoemaking, but I've never been there myself. Alternately, he just did a Kickstarter on an instructional video + kits for bootmaking, and the video should be out in six months or so; if you follow this, it should give you updates on when it's ready:

There's also a difference between discipline that's intended to hurt and scare, and simply getting the dog's attention via a restrained but unusual stimulus. Five minutes with a squirt bottle full of vinegar-water was enough to convince my new rescue Prince that bullying his big sister Sophie wasn't acceptable behavior - which saved all of us a lot of aggravation and stress.

Fair enough. Sounds like it's time to make a lot of scrap, then, until I start getting the hang of things. I've had reasonable success with doing similar things in fabric - but I'm pretty new to leather, so figuring out the quirks of this new medium has been an adventure. It also occurs to me that at least some of the fiddly bits could be done on my needle feed garment machine, at least with the weights of leather that I'm working with, leaving the heavier construction to be done with the walking foot.

@WizcraftsExcellent, that's exactly the sort of overview I was hoping for. @Uwe Drilling and tapping holes wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, but it sounds a bit excessive for the amount of applique I expect to be doing - which isn't much, just a couple pieces here and there; I can come up with an alternate method if necessary. I'm still more than satisfied with my machine for almost all of what I want to do; that said, what's different about new walking foot machines that makes precision stitching easier?

It turns out that I am laughably terrible at trying to keep things aligned by eyeball (even if I'm using the edge of the foot for reference). Practice will certainly help, but in the meantime, I might as well update my gadget wishlist. For stitching close to an edge (probably ~1/16" or so) on both free edges (like straps) and topstitching (applique), what type of guide would work best? I don't think spring guide presser feet will do the job for inside curves, and in any case, they don't go that narrow. From the searches I've done, it seems that a suspended roller guide would definitely do what I need, but there might be simpler options too.

Clipped on the straps and applique to get a feel for how it's going to look. Yes, my applique is a mess... I suck at cutting things out by hand. I might get it laser cut. Thankfully, this is the prototype, so I'm free to make all the dumb mistakes I want.

I'm still pretty astonished that it's coming together. It was looking awfully tortured and not very shoelike for most of yesterday.

Upper assembly (holy crap, it's starting to look like shoes!) Note: I failed to take pictures of skiving. But then again, it's skiving. Probably not very interesting. Outer upper assembled - tried a lapped seam, but it's not as tidy-looking as I'd hoped, so I might do a folded seam instead, like I did on the lining. (Also, yes, my skiving went a little wonky. But this is the prototype shoe, not the final version, so I don't have to be as perfectionist as usual.) Lining stitched, ready to glue down the seam allowances and hammer. Stitched and flipped, not yet glued. Stitched around the top and flipped, toe reinforcement glued in (yeah I should have done this before assembling the outer. Derp.) Flipped, glued, hammered. IT'S STARTING TO LOOK LIKE A SHOE OMG. and I'm pretty pleased with how crisp the folded edges came out at the front - although the corners leave something to be desired. It's difficult to skive in there; I'd love tips if anyone has one. Experiments with strap construction methods - front Experiments with strap construction methods - back Straps from the actual leather I'm probably gonna be working on the applique and stitching to the sole on Christmas. No better way to spend it in my opinion.

Soles: (Yeah, putting the stitch markings on that side was real dumb. Thankfully, I had also marked them on the edge, so it was easy enough to keep track of where they were.)

+1 for dog pictures! I live for dog pictures.

You're right - it looks much nicer with Tex 70 thread. I think I need more machinery to make the folded straps consistent, so I'll probably stick with the stacked straps; they look perfectly fine to me, at least for this pair of shoes.

Worth a shot, thanks!

This is just the prototype/an excuse to use up the ugly pink leather - I'm going to be using matching thread for the real version - so even if my stitching doesn't improve as much as I'd like, at least the wiggles will be a little bit less obvious. You did say something skiving before; I thought I'd mention that I skived the folded strap fairly thin across the entire width before folding (but left the stacked strap alone).

I don't currently have an edge guide, no. I'm willing to downscale my bobbin thread - this is my first industrial walking foot (Consew 227), and I'm still figuring out all the tricks. Thanks for the tips!

Tried out stacked layers, and folded to the center with reinforcement tape in the middle. Both seem reasonably viable. (Yes, the backside is ugly. I'm still getting the hang of my new machine and sewing in a straight line.)

Okay, if that's what it's supposed to look like, then I'm happy. I just wanted to make sure that I didn't have anything mis-adjusted. Thanks for the tip!

Just about got the hang of my new machine, but I've got one last thing to figure out. I've tweaked the tensions and read a lot on the forum (I never would have known about the hook in the take-up spring otherwise!), but I can't get the backside of the stitch to look quite right. In these pictures, I'm using a size 18 triangle point needle and size 92 bonded nylon thread on a combined weight of 4-5 oz kidskin. Any suggestions? Front: Back: Threading:

"Cylindraceous" is my new favorite adjective.