Join me for a private shoe making session! Making your own shoes can be an incredibly gratifying learning experience. My technique for shoemaking is relatively simple compared to more traditional methods. We basically use a last (shoe form) to form the toe and heel shapes, and then assemble them as we would a sandal. It’s a simple enough process to replicate at home with a few small investments and no machinery.

Because this process is geared toward beginning shoemakers, I might encourage you to start with a mary-jane style 2-part shoe. But I am open to making simple boots and shoes, with reinforced toes and heel counters. Let’s discuss!

During our 2 days together, we'll spend about 9-hrs designing, cutting, fitting, and building a pair of dream-shoes for your own feet. The possibilities in this class are wide open. There are many variables to play with including material, toe shape, hardware, heel height, and color. Let me know what days work for you and we can set up times that work for us both. (rachelpeanutbutter@gmail.com)

This technique is great for those who need a wider, or narrower, fit than store-bought shoes can provide. We can achieve any width because everything is custom-made!

Day 1: designing, choosing lasts, making and checking patterns, selecting leather colors and textures, lining leathers, dying leather, shaping outsoles, lasting uppers, stacking heels, etc. Day 2: fitting uppers, lots of scratching and glueing, creating midsoles/skiving, attaching heel/soles, edge finishing, nailing, adding laces and hardware.

Suggested workshop hours are about 4-5 hours one day and 5-6 hours the following day. When the class is larger than one person (like a group of 2 or 3) then things take considerably longer. I’m flexible! Let me know what fits into your schedule.

$500 includes all materials and 2 days of instruction. Price for 2 or 3 participants can be reduced.

*Note: You may want to wear or bring easy on/off footwear for our day of working with your feet. You’ll be thankful you did! Also, if you require eye-glasses for seeing up-close, these can be handy to remember to bring because we will be doing some precision cutting.