Hiltz390GT Report post Posted September 16, 2020 Hello Friends! I'm brand new to the forum. I was wondering if someone could shed some light on a project that I'm working on. I'm a gigantic fan of Catskill Mountain moccasins. They are a buffalo hide moccasin boot. I'm really not sure about the history of this moccasin style, other than they are popular at renaissance fairs. I would love to learn more about the history of this style, if anyone could shed light. I'm in the process of making a pattern to build my own, but I'm not so certain how to do the sole. If you look, it appears to be a 2- 3 layered sole. I was wondering if anyone has any advice on how to achieve this type of sole construction. If anyone has any insight, patterns, or experience making this type of moccasin, I'm all ears. I have a theory for it, but would love some insight from someone with experience. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rahere Report post Posted September 17, 2020 The reason the Faire folk like them is because they're turnshoes, made up inside out so the welt disappears inside, holding leather against leather to keep the damp out. One sewn, they're literally turned inside out. Someone's then glued an artificial sole on afterwards - stitching through would destroy the dampproofing, and turning it needs a relly flexible sole. What appears to be welting is actually the insole seam allowance turned over. In a true mocassin, that would be the sole anyway. Look at the different side-stitching techniques used for true welting. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rahere Report post Posted September 17, 2020 As far as the 2-3 layer question's concerned, it may be an incipient welt. A gasket is sewn in between welt and upper, designed to protrude well beyond them when turned.this then offers something to sew a hardier main sole to, without intruding into the body of the shoe itself. The lower of the seams is thereby hidden, and a separate welt trim can also be glued to the top, before stitching, thereby filling the top seam too. That's in general shoemaking. For general information, Sveta Kleta's Youtube channel is a decent starter. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HerukaAvatar Report post Posted November 1, 2020 (edited) yeah, inseam shoes are tricky. You can learn this style of shoes from Earthdancer School of Shoemaking (aka Windwalker shoes) if you're really interested. They do a 3 day workshop to make 3 button shoes (or knee-high). HOWEVER, they teach outsole because it's a huge challenge to turn shoes (sew them inside-out, and then turn them right-side-out). So if you want to learn from them you may need to specify before that you REALLY want to learn inseam boots, and you have an extra day after the class, can they please teach you? The turning process can take hours if you have an inflexible shoe sole. And is generally a tricky process to get all the parts right. When I make these shoes, I sew the shoe, get the topper finished with all the fancy things. THEN I sew leather to the mid-sole, with some allowance for the flipping process. And using the intermediary piece of leather (you can see in pic that's cut), which tensions the leather sewn to the mid-sole, that intermediate strip makes it so there are two surfaces to sew to. The toe is flat, on the same plane as the midsole; the heel is perpendicular to the midsole. The process is a mess to explain in words, find a great teacher. I learned with Windwalker Fine Footwear. Edited November 1, 2020 by HerukaAvatar Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
