How to replace high heel insoles and add a hidden platform

June 14, 2020June 14, 2020Leave a comment

I bought a pair of shoes at London Fashion Weekend sometime around 2009. Their shape is lovely, they have ankle straps to stay on, and they are made of funky fish skin dyed nude.

But they are old and a bit too large. The insoles were knackered despite me not wearing them too much. I decided to replace them.

It’s actually very easy, replacing insoles.

All you need is a piece of leather, a scalpel, a pen and UHU glue.

In 2017 I took the shoe making course at Cordwainer’s and I was surprised how easy some parts of making a shoe are. (Also I LOVED that course. My alternative career is definitely shoe maker.)

So I ripped the insoles out.

The nails sticking out over the heel needed something thick to cover them.

I decided to add something thick to the front too a bit like a hidden platform. Just one thick piece of leather.

Then I saw some foam I had lying around… so with the shoes being very roomy, I decided to add some padding in the front.

All you need is glue. No joke. I use UHU.

Foam went first.

Then more glue and the leather front soles.

Then I again used the old insoles as pattern pieces, traced them, then carefully cut new insoles out of baby blue leather using a scalpel.

I prefer putting insoles in suede side up. I find it more comfortable and grippy against the soles of my feet. The shiny leather can give blisters and is slippery so shoes move around. Not a good look, a shoe slipping off and a twisted ankle on a London sidewalk.

Getting the new full length insoles is a bit harder but it’s very doable if you get your hand under it (and covered in glue).

Ta daaaa!!

They are aaaalmost ready to wear. I put them on and stood for maybe ten minutes to put pressure onto the glue and warm it up to help it stick.

All done!!

They are now super comfy. And they hide my favourite colour (blue) in the insoles. Yay!

Splatter dress!

June 11, 2019June 9, 2019Leave a comment

There is a dress that I love and have four of.

The Myla from the pretty dress company.

I own it in cobalt blue, black and white. And eventually I might own it in all the colours. I adore this dress.

I also love wearing white. As a Greek, it suits me and feels like home. But sometimes, in a town like London, it’s a bit bright. So I decided to buy an extra Myla in white and maybe dip dye it or paint on it or something. Make it different. I wasn’t sure how.

Then my best friend Dana said “hey, I got a bunch of spray paints in colours you like”. And so… the white dress…

Got SPLATTERED WITH SPRAYPAINT!!!

I sprayed some ice blue in the traditional manner at the bottom, then got flicking caploads of spraypaint onto the dress.

LOTS of flicking.

So much flicking, that my arm hurt the next day.

And you’ll notice there are a dozen colours on there, including two pinks, two yellows, and 8 blues and greens!

We clearly didn’t think that crazy splatter dress was enough… because we also made a splatter necklace!! (In the bottom right)

It was a LOT of fun.

And as a bonus I am no longer worried about staining the white dress. Whatever I drop on it will just blend in with the rest of the splatter.

Last week I ran a workshop at work, and wore it. I felt awesome with the swing skirt, the pockets held my work passes, and the splatter gave a colourful crafty creativeness to the bright white boardroom.

It also looks great for going out for brunch on the weekend.

To splatter a dress, spray paint into the cap of the can, and flick the can towards your canvas. That is genuinely it.

Though I did get all perfectionist about it and made sure I changed my angle of flicking to be radial from the waistband to the edges of the circle skirt…. Once a geometry nerd, always a geometry nerd…

Have fun!!!

Got jeans that constantly slip off your bum? Then you need a secret belt!!

June 9, 2019June 9, 2019Leave a comment

Ok, first of all, I haven’t posted anything in TWO YEARS!?!? Sorry. 🤭

I just bought a new pair of jeans from uniqlo. They are the ultra stretchy kind, which in my experience means “we’ll keep slithering down off your bum all day, so you’ll spend all day pulling your trousers up again and again and again”.

Like most sane people, I find it immensely annoying to have to be constantly adjusting my clothes, so I have been adding secret belts to my jeans for the past few years.

This is the first time that I have paused and taken photos at every step, so that I could share the method with others.

First off, get a pair of jeans.

Then, a bit inwards from the button, cut a vertical hole.

How far in you cut depends on how stretchy they are. A lot of stretch, a small distance. Little stretch, bigger distance.

The goal is to leave enough of non-belted stretch / movement to allow for the jeans to flex when you move and sit and stuff. Or they’ll cut off your circulation.

Make the same cut on the other side of the waistband.

Next, take a solid ribbon that you have pre-cut to your “circumference” minus the “gap” of stretchiness you decided to leave, and weave a safety pin onto it.

Then, thread the safety pin with the ribbon through the hole on one end, and slowly move it along through the waistband until you make it come out of the hole at the other end of the waistband.

So now you have a ribbon threaded through the waistband of your jeans. Awesome. Don’t let it slip in.

Next, stitch the ribbon down onto the jeans, both before the opening and after.

And then fold it back and stitch it down so it covers the lumpy and scratchy stitch job you did at first.

Do the same thing on the other side. First stitch the ribbon down as it’s coming out of the hole.

Then fold back and stitch down.

When you’re done, it should look roughly like this.

Which means that when you put it on, it looks like THIS!

You’ll notice the ribbon creating a fold on the waistband. If you hate this, instead of threading the ribbon into the waistband, stitch it down on the inside, all around the waistband. That does make it more scratchy though, so I’ve opted for this solution.

Enjoy having jeans that no longer slip off your bum!!

My first sewing-awl saddle stitch!! Pen roll strap

January 2, 2017Leave a comment

Over new year’s, I went with my parter to visit his brother in the US. While there, I happened to go to an art store and buy some pens… which I could not fit into the – frankly too small – pencil case I had brought along. So I went back ans bought a pen roll too!

Except the pen roll was so poorly made! The strap felt quite unpleasant and stiff to the touch, and the button was popping off and letting the roll unroll while in my bag!

There are few materials I like less than plastic trying to pass itself off as leather… yuck! So today, as my first project of 2017, I replaced that strap with a leather one.

I had a leather skin, with a convenient straight edge, which I followed to manually cut a mostly straight strap much longer than the one on the pen roll.

Then I had to unpick the bad strap without damaging the pen roll! Embroidery scissors came in handy.

And finally, I stitched it using a sewing awl I bought in Germany about three years ago. My first ever real saddle stitch!! It was very exciting and surprisingly not very difficult at all! I am glad I have a massive chopping board to hand for doing my leather work on, or the cutting mat would be looking like a needlepoint project by now!

Oyster card holder

December 9, 2016Leave a comment

So a couple of months ago I made an oyster card holder.

I had a tough commute, and needed to be able to find the oyster card more easily. And hold onto it better, because that little thing is very slippery!

This was made with two pieces of leather, very easily saddle-stitched with gold thread all around. Then I stitched the slightly longer piece back onto the blue one, creating a loop.

I hadn’t expected to make the loop. It sort of just happened. And it has been very good!

Final sketches and draft handmade pattern for a new dress

July 22, 2013July 22, 2013Leave a comment

I want to make a dress to wear to a friend’s wedding this weekend. Yes. This weekend. In 5 days. I’m not sure I’ll manage, but my sketchbook looks more optimistic.

I have the fabric, the zip, the matching thread and the dress idea.

Alas, mother says the (terrible anyway) sewing machine we have here is broken. And, more critically, i do not have a pattern to make the dress with. So here i am exploring designs, taking measurements, and trying to make my first ever pattern from scratch. Well. First ever non-jersey pattern.

(Also posted on exintaris.com)

Seamstress Sophie

Dressmaking and other sewing experiments

Category: Customisation