SCA: "New" Viking Shoes FTW + Bonus Project

 So my Viking shoes, which I love*, had seen better days.  After two years of running around dusty events, the leather was dirty and stained and dry, and the laces were too thick, too short, and never stayed tied.  (I actually cut them off short because they kept coming undone, and then literally the day after I did that, I saw someone with the same shoes, with the laces tied up around her ankles, and I thought, why didn't I think of doing that before I chopped them off??  Argh).  

I kept thinking I'd eventually get to the leather store to get new laces for them, but then it dawned on me that I could just WEAVE some on my inkle loom!  Et voila: 

On the left is the old shoe.  On the right is the new teal inkle-woven lace.  I took the opportunity to clean and condition the leather as well, and I replaced the navy stitching with teal thread to match the laces.  

No socks, aaaa! 

It was a quick and easy fix, and now my shoes are both more functional and prettier.  I can't wait to wear them next month when events start happening again! 

Bonus Project: 

I also made a new belt for myself: 

I recently ordered some "Rainbow Lace" #10 cotton crochet thread from Hobbii - I used it for both the belt and the shoe laces and shoe stitching.  It's soft and smooth and lovely to work with, and it comes in a zillion awesome colors.  

These two projects were the 4th and 5th inkle weaving projects I've done; and this belt is the first time I've done a multi-colored weaving project.  It took for EVER to warp up the loom with all the stripes, but I really love the way it came out. It's long enough to wrap around me twice. 

~ fin ~

*If you're wondering, they're the Vlaardingen shoes from Bohemond, and they're available in brown and black, both with white stitching. 

A Belt!

Whaddaya do on a Friday night while watching TV and eating pizza with your BFF?  Make a belt!

1" silver-toned belt plaques from JoAnn Fabrics
An old leather belt, cut from 1.75" to 1", and wee holes poked in the ends
14" of 1/2" jewelry chain

Four with amethyst-colored glass, and four like this, with a little clear glass stone.

Hook-and-eye front closure made out of heavy silver wire

A better shot of the connections - just more heavy wire, rolled into jump rings
and then flattened, and the ends curled into the leather so they won't snag my dresses. 

A Pair of Fixer-Uppers

This is a pair of leather shoes I've had in the bottom of a closet for nearly a year, not being worn.  I purchased them at Gulf Wars two years ago (on clearance for $20, no less!  The whole line was marked down because the factory apparently got the sizing wrong:  these are supposedly a men's size 9;  I wear a women's 8.5 and they fit me perfectly).  Last Gulf Wars I took a rather spectacular fall, and in the process some of the stitching along the bottom burst.  

I tried to find a leather worker who could fix them for me, but the ones I know have been extremely busy, and so the shoes sat in my closet.  Finally, sick of wearing my uncomfortable backup pair, I figured, the holes are already in the leather - how hard could it be to do it myself?

:(

upholstery needle FTW

As it turns out, it wasn't remotely difficult. I didn't have any cord made for stitching leather, so I used a heavy upholstery thread, four strands together for strength.

It only took about ten minutes; but when I was done, I decided to really spiff these shoes up:

I traced my feet (feet turkeys!) and made a pair of insole pads out of some craft felt I had in my stash, to help with the comfort of walking, since I killed my last pair of gel insoles.

I ran a doubled length of brown, twisted embroidery floss over all of the decorative edge-stitching that was already on the shoes, on either side of it.  

I cleaned, polished, and oiled the leather as well, to condition and soften it, and to fix up the places where the dye had worn away from the leather from wear.  

The things you see in the above picture inside the heels are pieces of a plastic Ikea placemat (I got a pack of four in the as-is section for 50c a few months ago, and have been using them for all sorts of little things like this).  After reconditioning the leather, I wanted to make sure they'd cure into the correct shape again, so I stuffed the toes with paper towels and slipped these plastic pieces into the heels to keep them upright. 

All done!  The whole process took about an hour and a half. 

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