If you knit my ballet flat pattern and would like to add leather soles, here are the directions.
One note about safety: The sewing awl is extremely sharp. It's very important NOT to get your hands or fingers near the sharp end as you are pushing it through the leather. I learned this one the hard way! If you are concerned about hurting yourself, then take the shoes to your local cobbler. I'm sure he or she would love to add the soles for you and has all of the notions readily available.
If soling the shoes sounds like a fun project, then go for it!
Just BE CAREFUL! :-)
Notions Required
•Sewing awl with spool of thread attached
•Awl (smallest size at hardware store) and hammer (or leather punch tool)
•Piece of leather of sufficient size for your shoe soles, or equivalent in two smaller pieces (one piece for each shoe)
•One pair of insoles
•Sharp scissors for cutting leather
•Pen
•one-half inch elastic
•All purpose glue (such as Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Glue)
•Wooden or plastic clothespins
(Sewing awl tool (with spool attached, thread included, and sewing instructions), leather, and leather punch tool are available at your local craft store. Leather scraps are a suitable material for the shoe soles, and are very reasonably priced. Insoles are available at your local drugstore.)
Creating and Attaching
the Leather Sole:
As a first step, I recommend reading through the whole soling (yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s a word) process.
Once you’re ready to begin, it’s important to figure out the proper size for your inner and outer soles. To do this, follow the directions for trimming the insoles to your size shoe. I usually trim the toe of the insole and outer sole with a more square shape than the guideline printed on the insoles. The guideline is usually too pointy for my taste. Once insoles have been trimmed, use them as a rough pattern to create your leather outer sole.
Place the insoles right side up on the wrong side of the leather. With a ballpoint pen, draw around the insole edge, creating a guideline on the leather. Draw a new line that is one-eighth to one-quarter of an inch outside of the original line that you just created by tracing the insole. This will create the perfect fit for the outer sole. If you prefer to adjust the shape of the inner or outer soles, now is the time to do it. Cut out leather soles with sharp scissors.
Now the outer leather soles are trimmed to the exact shape that you will need. On the wrong side of the leather, draw a line one-eighth of an inch from outer edge of sole. Use the leather punch or awl and hammer to make holes approximately every one-eighth to one-quarter of an inch for sewing soles to knitted fabric.
Try on the knitted section of the shoe to determine exactly where to glue the sole. Cover the sole with a thin coat of glue and step on sole to position. Adjust as necessary. Secure edges with clothespins and allow to dry overnight.
Once glue has completely dried, follow the directions on the sewing awl package to sew leather securely to knitted fabric.
Shoe can be worn with or without insole according to your preference.
Keep in mind that your choice of insoles will affect the fit of the flat. Memory foam insoles are extremely comfortable and widely available, however they take up more room on the inside of the shoe. If you choose thick insoles, then please plan to accommodate them when choosing your knit shoe size. If you are on the borderline between a size 7 and 8, you should probably size up. The insoles that you choose will also affect the shape of your outer sole because the insoles will be used as a rough pattern for the outer sole.
Yay! My scrumptious Shibui yarn finally arrived! I used this yarn for my upcoming Interweave project (watch for me in Interweave Knits Gifts this November!) and I fell in love with it. The Baby Alpaca DK is super soft and has a lovely drape. The only problem is that it makes Snowflake, my cat, insane. It's like catnip to him. I literally have to carry my knitting around with me and protect it with my life or next thing I know he is rolling around in it, cross-eyed, shredding it with his hind legs. The Silk Cloud is sort of like Rowan's Kidsilk Haze, but slightly less fuzzy and much softer. This color is Wasabi. Isn't it great?
