I will mainly be using this to document my processes for making projects, with illustrations for clarity. I will avoid bringing up personal matters, such as my age, location and the like, since I do not believe this to be relevant to my projects.
I finished the turnshoes, but I am not 100% satisfied with them. One of them is slightly too small and the other is a tad too large. I finished them on the 12th I think? I'm not sure. My new projects were a balearic sling and some woven belts made of jute twine. I intended to use hemp, but hemp, flax and jute look pretty close in terms of colour, and jute is easier to find in general. They did not take long at all to weave. I think I spent about an hour on a belt that is about 3 meters long, and only 30 minutes on one that's 150cm. I used the shorter belt as a new belt for my braies. THe weaving pattern was a simple 3 strand braid, using 2 strands of jute per braid strand
Greetings! I have finished the first of the shoes, though i have not glued yet and I am debating if I will even glue in the first place. I will likely be making my next pair using a slightly different method, or i will adjust a previous pair to see how it compares to this. I have not tested them yet but I hope they will last. One annoying thing is that something tore while sewing, so i had to improvise, luckily I don't think the integrity of the shoe is compromised.
I have made turnshoes in the past, though they were always made of one layer of leather for the sole. (1st one was about 1-1.5mm, second one was 2+mm)
The current idea is to make a pair using two layers of leather stitched together, with maybe a thin layer underneath to protect the stitching from wear. The main issue with the first pair was the leather not being supple enough and tearing easily, the second pair is more durable but also a hair too big, both had issues with letting water in. Hence the idea for a third pair. The glue I've opted to use is fish glue, since I would like to stick to using natural materials for all my projects. Fish glue (isinglass) was used historically due to the fact it was very elastic, apparently it also isn't smelly so I'm glad to hear that. In principle hide glue is just another kind of gelatin, and I think I may have some at home although I'm not sure. The advantage of this construction is the fact that even if the glue fails, the shoe is still very useable since the protective leather isn't an integral part of the sole. As for the pattern: I'm using the one i've used for my previous two pairs since it fits my feet quite well.