Advanced Lasted Shoemaking Course

Advanced Lasted Shoemaking

In this course  you will explore shoemaking in a traditional way incorporating some modern techniques.  Utilizing skills you have obtained from previous footwear courses,  you will build shoes on lasts and gain an understanding of how classic shoes are made. 

  • Beginning with taping and sketching a pattern directly on the last
  • Adding seam and lasting allowances to the flat patterns
  • Preparing leather pieces by cutting, skiving and gluing
  • Preparing toe and heel counters, skived and stiffened
  • Stitching  the vamps together. 
  • Adding the linings
  • Wetting and lasting the shoes
  • Adding a welt
  • Cutting and shaping the sole and heel
  • Finishing touches, trimming, sanding

            You will learn the inner workings of the shoe such as how to construct an insole, toe-box, and heel-counter of leather and how to make them rigid enough to keep the shoe’s shape over time. Upper pattern placement and lasting, shank placement, the application of cork filler to the midsole and the addition of decorative leather welting to the outer edge of the shoe, leather outsole shaping and attachment and stacked leather heel assembly, shaping and attachment.  The final day you will remove the lasts from your shoes and add a padded sock (insole pad), trim the linings off the pattern and add finishing touches to your completed pair of shoes.