In the studio

Time for some patterns, new territory for me which is all about boots. I have made many a boot when I worked for other footwear designers, but the pattern making side of it is a new world. As I've mentioned before, my methods of making patterns are mixed and varied, mostly drawing on the last and the geometric method.

So for this new-ish venture I consulted good old George Koleff's book on geometric pattern making. It's a really thorough look at traditional shoe and boot styles, and also gives info on pattern grading, last making, size comparison charts etc.

At first when I sat down to this task I was a bit overwhelmed, I had to turn off the radio and stop getting out of my chair when it got too hard. The instructions are pure geometry - 'measure a line at 83 degrees to the H-L line, which is half the C1-C line, plus 7ml for women and men but not for children's boots ........' It was a bit tricky, but I persevered and lo and behold by the end of it I had a recogniseable boot pattern.


Today I cut all the pattern pieces in card, and will assemble them in paper or do a leather mock-up to see if it's all behaving. I have a few other boots on my list of things to do, so I'm looking forward to becoming fluent in this whole new language.


I also discovered that if you pour hot tea into a cup, and nestle some tiny easter eggs next to it on the saucer, by the time the tea has cooled enough for my taste, the eggs are lovely and gooey, and unfortunately a bit addictive.

In other news, the studio is rather chilly now in the mornings, I had to get my Cottage Industry fingerless gloves on today. Also the broad beans and carrot seeds are up, garlic is mostly all planted, and I'm loving 'Around the World in 80 Gardens' on ABC 1, tonight at 8:30, but alas I will miss tonight's episode as I'm off to see Dylan Moran.