I made shoes!

Since I saw Tilly's post about making her own shoes, I've been wanting to try it too. Of course I Can Make Shoes, where Tilly took her course, is in London.  Now, finally I was in England for work and decided I would spend some money on this, as I have small feet (EUR: 34, UK: 2) and it makes it hard for me to find shoes that fit and are the style I want. The only course that would fit my schedule was of course none of the cheaper ones, but the one for 3 days: Start your future in footwear, which came with a price tag of £500 (see this and other courses at the website). But I decided it was worth it. Even if turned out to be something I wasn't interested in, I thought I would at least have the experience.

Before I signed up, I wanted to know if I could make mid-heel shoes instead of the high-heeled ones, as I normally wear children's shoes that have no heels at all, and I don't think I would actually wear the high-heeled ones. Amanda got back to me super quick and told me, it's possible, but if I want to make sure there is a correct last for my size, I should buy one, but I could order it and receive it when I came to the course, so that the shipping costs were less. I thought this was a great idea, since I was already getting excited about making my own shoes, and to make them you would need a last of your own. It of course got the price up with £100.

Well, finally the long-awaited day arrived. I was staying in London with a friend and I had looked which bus I should take to the train and then which train to take further. Well, I did take the right bus, but to the wrong direction. In the end I was only about 15-20 min late and hadn't missed much, so it was ok, but I was really annoyed at myself...

The day started with Amanda telling us about the shoemaking process and she had taped our lasts already with masking tape, so that we could start designing right away. I was a bit worried as I'm not particularly good at drawing, but doing it to the last in 3D wasn't too bad. And of course Amanda was there to help :) I chose lovely bright red suede for my fabric and I really wanted to get the mary jane style, as they for some reason don't ever have them in my size - well, with heel anyway.

Filling the bottom with cork filler

After drawing the pattern, we cut it and after adding some allowances cut the fabric. Mine was quite thin, so I also needed interfacing. And of course you need lining as well. The whole shoe making process seemed not too intimidating when you have help all the way. I'm sure you can also learn at home (they sell kits and instructions on the website as well), but I would really recommend taking a course. Even though I had someone explaining what to do, I messed up and Amanda ended up fixing things. I'm sure that by myself I would've had been lot more frustrated. No, there was no frustration at all and after the first day I had almost finished the upper (which is the top part of the shoe), and I had my insoles covered as well.

Second and third day went by as fast as the first one. Lizzie joined Amanda as a teacher and it was even less waiting around. We were also quite lucky as there was only 4 of us, when the maximum size of the group is 6. We had a great group, 2 Brits, 1 Egyptian and 1 Finn from France. We all bonded over lunch and shoe-making. I loved to see everyone's shoes taking shape and they were all fairly different to each of our tastes. And I loved all of them, even if I think I would only wear mine.

See more pictures at the gallery of I Can Make Shoes

The shoe making process involved a lot of gluing, some stitching, and then some drilling and hammering... I definitely learned some new skills and I was very happy with the end product. There was the strap, though, which if I really had thought about it, I would've liked to topstitch that with white like the shoes, now it looks a bit home made. Also, I noticed after letting them set a bit, that one of the sides wasn't pulled as tight as it could and it's a bit wonky. But I would say these are minor details. All in all, the shoes are great and the little things don't really show if you don't look too closely.

The shoes had to wait a week before you could try them on, so that there was time for the glue to really set in. I finally tried them on and they fit like they were made for me. Oh wait, they were. Here are few pictures with me wearing them. Sorry about the mirror pictures, I'm staying at a B&B and needed to make do.

If you are interested in shoe making. Or more likely if you already know how to make shoes you might be interested in J. T. Bachelor and S&K Leathergoods & Fittings that sell leather and shoe making supplies in London (these are here to remind me as well...). If anyone knows other good places for supplies (especially in France!), please let me know in the comments!

My Colors

I so wanted to take part in Me Made May 2013. But, alas, I don't really have enough me mades to last for a month. This is my goal for next year. To actually sew so much, that I could pledge myself to wear at least 2-3 times a week me mades. But, I loved getting inspiration from others and enjoyed the posts of other bloggers. Inspired by Gillian, who included a color palette for her MMM'13 challenge, I wanted to create my own color palette. Not really to challenge myself, but to think more about the colors I use and what kind of fabrics I buy. I came up with the following:

The idea is that the smaller rectangles are sort of accent colors, so that I have more neutral tones to choose from. This isn't really that strict and I'm not going to go and throw away clothes that don't fit to the palette. But I've noticed that these are the colors I wear most often. And if I look at the things I'm sewing, the Réglisse has pink and brown in it, the Sassy Librarian Blouse will be from orange and yellow and the swimsuit from turquoise and red. So, not bad...

The right style for YOUR body

I have thought about this before, but especially when sewing the charleston dress: there are certain styles that just fit better for certain body types. No matter how much I love 20s charleston style, I will never look great in it. Then again 50s style suits me a lot better. Well, there are things I will wear anyway, but it is nice to know what really suits you and what to avoid. To help, there's a great collection of videos at Videojug: Videojug - Fashion for your shape

Basically, it's a collection of videos with the tag - fashion for your shape. You can find the best styles and avoid the ones that really don't work. I'm trying to take these as guidelines, not as strict rules, but I think they might help with defining your own style. Also, it's good to look at few different makers of videos. Sometimes the tips disagree a bit, so seeing a few videos gives more idea what's best in general. Also, now that the summer is almost here, they have advice on the best swimsuit styles as well, so if you're updating your swimsuit, take a look at the advice first!

What I realized watching these videos is, that I've noticed lot of the stuff myself while just choosing clothes. Sometimes, when you really like something, though, you might not realize that while it looks amazing on the hanger, it just doesn't look great on you. So, I think I will keep these in mind while planning what to buy/sew/wear. And it will make the decision that much easier.

Colour blocking

Well, I know I'm a year late, but as the colour blocking seems to continue this year, I thought I'd write about it. Especially, because I really like the idea (big fan of colours here). I think one of the clearest examples what it is is explained by Wendy from Wendy's Lookbook (see the video below). I found the beginning a little bit annoying, but it gets better :) She demonstrates well how to choose the colours as well as giving some examples of outfits. The video is about 10 min, but most of it is examples, so the beginning was the thing for me (the things about the colour wheel and choosing different combinations).

Color Blocking for Spring/Summer (2011):

Wendy has also made an introductory video about colour wheel, that I thought was fun and here also you can see the way of choosing which colours to combine:

The Painter's Color Wheel with Clones!

I have also included a colour wheel here for reference:

 

And of course some examples how to apply this. First there are some lovely examples from Shabby Apple's collection: The Block. I especially love the combination on the left. It's so vibrant and fun.

 

You should also check the tips of Fabulous after 40 about colour blocking. Don't let the title of the blog fool you, the tips are good for people under 40 as well. And if you want more ideas, just go to Pinterest and search for color blocking. And of course there's Google, but I think Pinterest gives better results.

Michelle Obama does colour blocking

Colour blocking on runway

Planning my wardrobe - part II

So, in part I I said I would track my activities and make some charts of the ways I use time (and of course, it all started from here). And so I did. And here are my charts. I have used categories that make sense to me, so I've mainly thought of different clothes I would be wearing, which is why sleep time is separated from home time. I add here the whole 2 weeks chart, but also the chart for week 1, since the second week wasn't really a normal week, because I had a day off from work and there was a national holiday as well, so there's more home/friends time in the second week.

What is fairly noticeable in both of the charts is that I spend a whole lot of time at home (I hadn't realized how much, although I think I've been spending a bit more time at home now than normal for personal reasons). And then from the rest a major part is spent at work (which I knew). So I think this is what I need to think when I plan the things I want to buy/sew for myself. But I also think I want a change to what I'm wearing in general. My work doesn't really require any specific clothing (not even office wear), but I'd like to be more professional looking. At least part of the time. And until now I've tended to wear old stuff that doesn't fit great at home, but I always feel better when I wear something pretty. But it needs to be comfortable too. I actually bought some pajamas from the sales after Christmas and I love them. They're comfy, but still look good. And that's what I'm aiming for clothes to wear at home.

I also notice that even though I have big plans for my swing dancing outfits, it's actually not a big chunk of my time. Then again I think dresses could be also worn at work. I think for a long time I've just wanted to blend in and I've sort of succeeded in good and in bad. So now I try to think what I actually want to wear and think less how other people will react and how they like what I'm wearing. This is actually hard: where to draw the line? I mean if you think about your style, part of it is that you want it to be a message, so it's not totally independent on what other people think. But when part of the message is that I don't really care what you think, then it gets a bit tricky. And then there are of course situations when I do care what other people think.

But I will keep these charts as a guideline of the new things I might buy and/or sew. But I think I really need to think about this, since I would love to just have a bunch of new dresses and skirts. But with skirts you also need cute tops to match... We'll see how it goes. As for the anomalies, maybe I'll try to chart my time again during summer or maybe fall when I see how my new life is shaping out.

Planning my wardrobe - part I

I was reading Coletterie blog few days ago and they had this great post: A practical, personal wardrobe. While reading this, I realized that I spend a fair amount of my time at home. And even if I just want to wear something comfortable, I feel better if it also looks good. At the moment the clothes I use at home are mostly old, really worn stuff. Mostly it's comfortable, but it doesn't look that great. I don't want to put a whole lot of money on clothes that I only see, which is probably why this has happened. But I think there was a great idea in the post: log what you do for a couple of weeks and then start planning your wardrobe according to it. I love charts and I love planning, so this should be fun!