To order products
send credit card information, name and address via telephone or fax or send check made out to Sharon Raymond to address below:

Sharon Raymond
145 Baker Road
Shutesbury, MA 01072

Tel: 413.259.1748
Fax: 413.241.6119

Email:
sharon - at - simpleshoemaking.com

SOLES WITH AN EDGE!

OUTDOOR SOLING and PATTERNS for making BOOTS and CLOGS

from HANDMADE FELT or FABRIC

There are all kinds of knit, crochet, and felt boots and clogs available in stores. As a craftsperson, do you ever look at them and think, "I could make those boots, or much more beautiful ones, if only I knew how to attach soles to them"? Soles with an Edge solve that problem - they are outdoor soles with a suede or nonleather strip standing up around the edge. There are perforations along the top of the strip, so you can place your handmade boot or clog inside the suede edge, stitch your footwear to the soling - then go for a walk outside!

NOTE: The pattern for the clog above is available on one of my "Free Patterns" pages.

If you want to draw your boots in tight against your leg, order suede loops that you attach while stitching your boot to the sole. You can thread a cord through the loops, then tie the cord around your leg. The black and white crocheted boot below shows how the loops function - (metal loops are available by special order.) A suede heel cover is also available, and you may want to stitch a third pair of suede loops along its edge, as shown on the black and white boot.

If you prefer to have your boots machine-stitched to the soling for you, information on that service is available below. Felt footwear can be assembled for you as well - just send the felt, I'll return it to you in the form of boots or clogs!

Your footwear can be made of handmade felt, knit/felt, crochet/felt, felted recycled wool coats and sweaters, and heavy-duty fabric. And who knows, perhaps of hooked material, needlepoint, and of whatever other brilliant material you have created! Basically, you can use any material that a hand-sewing needle can puncture.

FOLLOWING ARE THE PROCESSES FOR MAKING BOOTS or CLOGS FROM VARIOUS MATERIALS:

HAND-MADE FELT - Hand-made felt boots can be made in two ways - either by creating the whole boot using one's foot as the mold, called the "resist" method, or by making flat felt, cutting it into the components of the boot according to patterns offered below, then stitching these pieces together.

RESIST-MADE FELT BOOTS: To order custom soling for your resist-made boots, put your boots on your feet, and stand with each boot on a piece of paper. Have someone, with a pencil held straight up and down, trace around your boots - pressing fiber in close to your foot while doing so, so the soles won't be unnecessarily large. Send those drawings to me, and I will make your soles using a composite pattern of those two tracings. If you fax the patterns, please indicate heel to toe measurement in case there is any distortion en route. When planning your resist-made boots, I suggest that you make some sort of opening in them, so they can be form-fitting. From my experience, felt boots that you just slip into soon become very loose on the foot. Or, make your boots of sufficiently-thin felt so they can be gathered tight against the foot and leg under cords through suede loops on the edge of the soling. The boots at the right were made in Jennifer Hoag's class offered several times a year in Vermont. Information is available at www.northeastfiberarts.com.

PATTERN-MADE FELT BOOTS: Boots made with the patterns offered below have a standard-shaped sole that you can order by length, as seen on the first of my "free patterns" page. Download that pattern and alter the length on a photocopy machine until your whole foot fits just inside it, from the back of your heel to the tip of your longest toe. The orange and cream boots shown above were made by Jane Herman from her hand-made felt using this pattern, and have zipper closings. Classes are offered by myself and Chris White in making felt boots from patterns at her business in Massachusetts. Information is available at www.feltingsupply.com.

PATTERN-MADE FABRIC BOOTS: The patterns described above can also be used to make boots from fabric, such as recycled denim, upholstery material, or hemp. The boot to the right, above, was made from upholstery material, with a band for snaps made from the same suede as is used for the soling.

KNIT/FELT: I am excited to be offering two sources of patterns for knitting, then felting boots.To order soling for boots made by this process, first make your boots, then follow directions above for ordering custom-shaped soling for resist-made boots, as people using the same patterns are likely to get very different shapes of boots.

It Girl Knits! - by Phoenix Bess, offers a knit/felt boot pattern in her recently published book. The resulting boot has a fur cuff and off-white soles with an edge. You can order her book at www.phoenixbess.com

Maggie Pace - offers a tie-front double-layer knit/felt boot pattern in her book, Felt Forward. In addition, on her website, she offers a "snuggly" one-piece boot pattern in both adult and children's sizes. On the left you can see the "snuggly" with Soles with an Edge outdoor soling.

CROCHET/FELT: There are two crochet/felt boot patterns that I am aware of, described below. Cheri's Crochet Boot pattern is available for $6.00 from me, please send check to address at left. I used it to create the black and white boot with the rainbow edge.

The pattern for Catirina Bonet's Crocheted Boot with a colorful tie, is available at etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=12115827

RECYCLED AND FELTED WOOL COATS AND SWEATERS: Skip the knitting, crocheting, and hand felt-making, and make your boots from feltable material that already exists! Use the patterns available below to make your boots, and stitch them together by hand or machine. If you use woven wool fabric, perhaps from a recycled coat, it will not stretch, so you need to design some feature that will allow the boot to open so you can get it on - a zipper, snaps, overflap with a tie, etc. Boots made from a felted wool sweater will be stretchy, so you can easily slide your foot right in. But, you probably will need the suede loops so a cord can be added to draw the boot in tight to your leg.

I made the boot on the right from an old wool coat.

ORDERING SOLING:

Soling ordered in the shape of my sole pattern with a edge of black suede in new condition is the only soling that can be returned. The standard outer soling material is plantation crepe, a non-petroleum product - I call it IF-ART soling (I'm from a rubber tree!). It is very flexible, which is good for your circulation in cold weather, yet provides great cushioning. Other soling options are available, see below.

length of foot in inches, in medium width:

6", 6 1/2", 7", 7 1/2", 8", 8 1/2" -------------- $25.00 plus $5.00 shipping

9", 9 1/2", 10", 10 1/2", 11", 11 1/2", 12" --- $30.00 plus $5.00 shipping

These soles are also available in wide, which is 3/8" wider than medium. When ordered in black suede, they are returnable.

OPTIONS:

COLORS of suede rims available on the soles are: brown, tan, white, teal, fuchsia, pink, lavender, grey, forest green, moss green, medium blue, purple and red. These soles are not returnable.

non-leather option: black rubbery material, not returnable:

12 suede loops for passing a cinching cord through - $5.00 including shipping

heel covers - $5.00 including shipping

SOLING OPTIONS: A Vibram sole is available for an additional $20.00

PATTERNS FOR MAKING CENTER-SEAM BOOTS, SHOES and CLOGS FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY - These boots can be made of recycled wool or other fabric, handmade felt, felted sweaters, and hooked or needlepointed material - the set is available for $12.00 plus $5.00 shipping. The patterns can be altered on a copy machine to fit feet from 6 to 12 inches in length.

I CAN MACHINE STITCH SOLES onto your open-bottom-boots, such as can be made with Cheri's Crochet Boot pattern or any boot made from my Center-Seam Boot patterns for $35.00 in smaller sizes, $50 in larger sizes, soling included.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you have, no matter how off-the-wall! I realize that creating felt or fabric boots in this manner is a totally-new concept, so I expect "what if's" and "how about.." and "could I?" I love it!