spring flowers and good food

[chuck123wapati]

I can now make a moccasin. I tried to make my own pattern a couple of years ago and failed miserably, as you can see, they worked but not much more lol. So this time  I used a pattern pack from Tandy, "Mountain Man Moccasin Patterns by Gene Noland". I used pattern number three, decided to make it exactly as the pattern, and it was a failure, too. The leather tore out, and the stitching holes were so far apart they looked like crap. The heel and toe had wrinkles that I hate. 

But the problem I think, was my leather mostly, these moc patterns are made for lighter, more flexible leather than I used, so I had to make a form for the soles, learned that from the first pair. Veg tan won't mold to your foot with time. I used heavy holster leather for both insole and outsole, so the sole is as hard as a decent sandal. I used some 2mm for the vamps, but I still had to oil them before sewing them up, learned that from #2. A good coat of nfo gives the leather enough stretch so you can pull the stitching tight as you go.

 3# came together, I think, got the form right, so i dont have puckers , made the vamp three pieces so they dont tear out and fit correctly. Skived the edges of the sole down and moved the stitching up closer and more tidy , took a hammer and pounded out the puckers in the toe and heel. Oh, and changed the top a bit . These i could wear downtown. I used crap leather as these were experiments, but now maybe I'll buy some good bison for the vamps, I kinda like the harder soles now that i can make them repeatable. funny thing the leather I used had been left out in the sun, and part had tanned darker, so now I have a light moc and a darker one lol I guess ones going into the car window for a week or so.

[toxo]

23 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

I can now make a moccasin. I tried to make my own pattern a couple of years ago and failed miserably, as you can see, they worked but not much more lol. So this time  I used a pattern pack from Tandy, "Mountain Man Moccasin Patterns by Gene Noland". I used pattern number three, decided to make it exactly as the pattern, and it was a failure, too. The leather tore out, and the stitching holes were so far apart they looked like crap. The heel and toe had wrinkles that I hate. 

But the problem I think, was my leather mostly, these moc patterns are made for lighter, more flexible leather than I used, so I had to make a form for the soles, learned that from the first pair. Veg tan won't mold to your foot with time. I used heavy holster leather for both insole and outsole, so the sole is as hard as a decent sandal. I used some 2mm for the vamps, but I still had to oil them before sewing them up, learned that from #2. A good coat of nfo gives the leather enough stretch so you can pull the stitching tight as you go.

 3# came together, I think, got the form right, so i dont have puckers , made the vamp three pieces so they dont tear out and fit correctly. Skived the edges of the sole down and moved the stitching up closer and more tidy , took a hammer and pounded out the puckers in the toe and heel. Oh, and changed the top a bit . These i could wear downtown. I used crap leather as these were experiments, but now maybe I'll buy some good bison for the vamps, I kinda like the harder soles now that i can make them repeatable. funny thing the leather I used had been left out in the sun, and part had tanned darker, so now I have a light moc and a darker one lol I guess ones going into the car window for a week or so.

Good job Chuck, I did much the same thing. Got half way through and got fed up trying to work things out so bought a pattern. Easy enough to do and I had a piece of sheepskin. I ran out of sheepskin so used a bit if something else. I have lots of real fur that's just sitting there cos many over here are squeamish about real fur. Turns out I don't like the open back so will prolly put a back on.

I'm not keen on the boot type but they look good. I do like the blue ones for something you can go out in in fact, when I bought the slipper pattern I bought this one also which is closer to what I was trying to do in the first place.

[chuck123wapati]

11 hours ago, toxo said:

Good job Chuck, I did much the same thing. Got half way through and got fed up trying to work things out so bought a pattern. Easy enough to do and I had a piece of sheepskin. I ran out of sheepskin so used a bit if something else. I have lots of real fur that's just sitting there cos many over here are squeamish about real fur. Turns out I don't like the open back so will prolly put a back on.

I'm not keen on the boot type but they look good. I do like the blue ones for something you can go out in in fact, when I bought the slipper pattern I bought this one also which is closer to what I was trying to do in the first place.

Those are nice as well, they look really comfy and warm.  That steampunk pattern dude has a nice pattern for that driving moc style, that's what they call em here anyway. I almost bought it, but my bank didn't like the site and wouldn't process the transaction. Mine are for outdoors as much as indoors I am thinking I'll make it even more of a chukka type moc with a fully gusseted tongue. Now that I have a decent pattern i can continue to enhance it.

[toxo]

11 minutes ago, chuck123wapati said:

Those are nice as well, they look really comfy and warm.  That steampunk pattern dude has a nice pattern for that driving moc style, that's what they call em here anyway. I almost bought it, but my bank didn't like the site and wouldn't process the transaction. Mine are for outdoors as much as indoors I am thinking I'll make it even more of a chukka type moc with a fully gusseted tongue. Now that I have a decent pattern i can continue to enhance it.

After watching the Dieselpunk video for the mocs I don't like em so much but the pattern has all the parts so Ill look at adapting it for machining. The slipper pattern will be a breeze to machine and should be quick too.

[chuck123wapati]

24 minutes ago, toxo said:

After watching the Dieselpunk video for the mocs I don't like em so much but the pattern has all the parts so Ill look at adapting it for machining. The slipper pattern will be a breeze to machine and should be quick too.

 Yeah, you should be able to machine sew that. That's the problem with my pattern theres no way for me to sew the sole on other than by hand, and it is a bugger for sure. i found that to get a good-looking stitch i had to take about 6 stitches, then use my needles as a lever to stretch the vamp into place, tighten the stitches, then do 6 more. My poor needles went through heck and are bent from the process. Stuff they don't tell you in the instructions. I got it down to about an hour for the sole with the last one.

[toxo]

7 minutes ago, chuck123wapati said:

 Yeah, you should be able to machine sew that. That's the problem with my pattern theres no way for me to sew the sole on other than by hand, and it is a bugger for sure. i found that to get a good-looking stitch i had to take about 6 stitches, then use my needles as a lever to stretch the vamp into place, tighten the stitches, then do 6 more. My poor needles went through heck and are bent from the process. Stuff they don't tell you in the instructions. I got it down to about an hour for the sole with the last one.

Took me a while to realise that hand sewing works around dissimilar curves because it draws the two halve together gradually. In some cases the stitch holes are different on each side to facilitate. The simplest way when they get too far apart is to go back now and then and use the previous hole twice to even up but doesn't look good if gonna be seen. When machining it's sometimes easier to "V" notch arounf the bends.

[Darren8306]

when sewing boxing style mittens, the back is larger than the palm. To gather them evenly, they are handsewn with single stitches at first.

One stitch at 12 o'clock, one at 4 o'clock, one at 8 o'clock. Then split the difference...

so next at 2 and 10 o'clock, then continue single stitches at the biggest gaps. 

 

This makes the gathers even, but again, no machine works that way, except the human hands.

[toxo]

Interesting information. Thanks for sharing.