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I'm hoping that making it easy to post will mean more frequent updates.

Tags: shoes, news

I posted about my dyeing experiments, but I also expired with some other things. I made a belt for myself. I made an iPhone case, I made a bracelet for my wife. They gave me the chance to experiment with different threads and different stitching techniques. They also helped me focus on what I really want to do with my work.

Up until now, I had been hand stitching using a lock stitch. It's an easy method, which is why my teacher taught it. However, many leather workers swear by saddle stitching. It produces a more durable stitch, especially when a stitch gets cut. It also eliminates the bulk of knots at the end of stitches or where thread breaks. It is more time consuming, but it seems worthwhile. I will be using it for future shoes.

Related to the stitching, I have been trying some different threads. I started with nylon thread, and I kept using it due to linen thread breaking easily. However, I began to think I had simply used inferior linen thread. Thanks to the Leatherworker Forum, I found some Irish linen thread and some US made linen thread. The US thread is on it's way to me, but I already got the Irish thread and it is a worthwhile expense, a single ply of it is stronger than the 6 ply thread I had been using before. I'm looking forward to testing the US made thread, but it's clear to me that I can eliminate nylon from my shoes.

I mentioned that the experiments allowed me to focus on what I really want to do, and that is make good shoes. Working on other projects showed me that I don't get the same satisfaction out of them that I do from a pair of shoes. Bracelets may still be something that I make, mainly to use scrap leather, but shoes are what I want to focus on.

My next step is going to be making molds of somebody else's feet so that I can try making shoes for other people. That, and I also need to make myself a good pair of shearling boots for next winter.

Tags: leather

Initially, I bought pre-dyed leather. My next step was buying vegetable tanned leather and dying it with water based dyes that I bought. Since every step I make in shoemaking is towards more natural solutions, I thought I should try making dye myself.

After reading message board posts from leatherworkers, I decided to try coffee dye. I enjoy drinking good coffee, so I thought I could save my used grounds and make dye. Unfortunately, my plan didn't work as expected and my dye didn't have much of an effect.

I have two types of vegetable tanned leather. The top row is tooling leather, and the bottom row is a softer leather. On the left is the leather in it's raw form. Next is leather painted with coffee dye, then leather soaked in coffee dye for 24 hours. Finally, there is some store-bought natural indigo dye. I wanted to try it since I like the color, and because I found no useful information about dyeing leather with indigo. Web searches just yielded information about indigo transfer from jeans to shoes.

Besides the sample pieces of leather, I tried dying a leather bracelet, my first attempt at braiding leather

While I had the indigo dye, I decided to try my hand at some other projects. Inspired by some shibori fabric I saw on blogs recently, I wanted to tie dye some fabric. The first fabric I tried was a handkerchief that my wife bought for me.

The second was a white wool shirt which had become a bit too discolored over the years.

I like the colors on both, and I also like having some things that I dyed myself. Having a tie dyed shirt reminds me of high school.

Returning to leather dyeing, I think my coffee may have had problems due to being used grounds instead of fresh grounds, and from a pot with a lid that fit so well, the liquid didn't reduce. To move ahead with my next dyeing experiments, I decided to order some black walnut hulls, so I can make dye out of them.

Tags: leather