2015 12 07 Happy Feet Boots Getting Ready For Leather Soles

Contrary to what management at my part-time shift-work job may think, not all of my always belongs to them.

The whole rest of my time, aside from when I'm clocked in there, belongs to me.

Since those long hours of pounding on concrete floors are brutal on my feet, legs, back, shoulders, arms, and neck ... it behooves me to do the best I can for them with the rest of that always. It kind of stinks because the whole thing was to spare my body the hurting feet, shin splints, aching muscles that I had assumed just went with the territory of that job. I assumed it right up until the 24 shifts I put in wearing the experimental versions of my happy feet boots and learned the difference.

Being as appearances trump health and comfort, my poor body is going to have to cope with the consequences and hope it never amounts to anything more than the 'normal' pain associated with the job when my feet send the hurting up my legs, which makes them hurt and not want to take the burden that usually belongs to those big strong muscles. That pushes the load onto my smaller more vulnerable back muscles, which makes them rebel and refuse to take the strain. That puts the load onto my shoulders, arms, and makes for a pretty stiff neck from stress and tension. And that's not even counting the headaches from said tension along with those bright spotlights that trigger my bad eye into its own kind of pain and flips the headaches into migraines.

So yeah.

I'm darned well going to get these pairs of happy feet boots soled in leather and finished up - even though I can't wear them for their intended purpose, there's not a soul in this big wide world with the authority to inform me that I can't wear them whenever I'm not at that shift-work job.

Okay, that's it for my rant.

In case you don't already know, that blue stuff is liquid rubber - not exactly 'liquid' but it's a consistency a person can paint onto stuff. It makes the soles and a bit up the sides of my happy feet boots waterproof and non-skid. The smurf-blue is newly painted on; the darkening stuff is drying into the dark navy blue it will stay.

Not that you'll see it.

Once these coats are dry I'll add another one just before I put the leather on.

One thing about this rubber stuff is that it's a terrific adhesive - bonds things together, it does. So it will work as a waterproof glue to hold the leather in place.

The plan is to run the leather up the sides far enough to be able to use for lacing bases.

IF I were going to use these for that shift-work job I'd take the leather and laces clear up past my ankles for that extra support - but - since I don't have to worry about that I'll save my leather for when my friend gets the new thick felted wool boot forms to me and I actually make the final version of these happy feet boots!

*laughing*

Not that there's any real shortage of leather.

I hit the jackpot recently on a jaunt to our local Frip Shop, remember. I've got lots of black leather and some really really beautifully buttery soft brown.

Even so, there's no point in wasting it, right?

Right.

Onward.

The top pair up above (the ones that are almost dry now) go with a matching sweater vest (the boots were the sleeves) and a pair of ear muffs made from the wide upper part of the sleeves I cut off to make the boots fit right. I'll wear a pair of black wool pants tucked into the boots and a wonderful black merino sweater under the vest.

The lower pair has a matching scarf and mittens to go with them.

Yep.

It's all an experiment to see what still might need adjusting before I get the actual final pairs of boot forms. Which isn't to say that I'm not going to wear these, because I most certainly will.

I've also got a pair of lightweight bright red ones I wear lined with my felted wool 'footprints' as inside soles - very comfortable with wool socks. They're my slippers.

And I've still got the original pairs (one black, one brown) my friend made for me. I'm still using them for experimental purposes.

So that's it for the time being.

This woman is heading for bed and some good solid rest while the rubber stuff finishes drying. Tomorrow will be soon enough to get the leather designed and cut.

2015 10 21 Tonight's Boot Experiment

Today’s experiment has the thick brown felted wool ‘boot tubes’, flip-flop inside soles, taped outer soles and heels, and felted wool sweater sleeve ‘socks’. I’ve got the leather straps around them at the ankle, too. They're concealed by the folded down boot tops.

The ‘socks’ work (so far) better than I had hoped. With the cuffs up at my knees, the wider part of the sleeves (where they join to the body of the sweater) gives me plenty to wrap around my feet, providing the cushioning I want at the toes and arches. I’m amazed.

Whether I’ll still be amazed by the end of this concrete-pounding eight hour shift remains to be seen.

If my feet are happy, I’ll go ahead and get the felt (or leather, we'll see what I feel like) cut to cover the taped parts and start the layers of liquid rubber. But I won’t do that tonight because I’ll want these for the rest of the shifts I’ve got to fill before I’ll have the days off I’ll need to get all those layers on and dried and seasoned so I can wear the boots again. I don't want to be leaving wet rubber Smurf footprints!

Also, even with the sweater socks providing that extra cushioning, there's still plenty of 'wiggle room' for my toes! Once I find the most comfortable fit (each foot is wrapped differently for this experiment) I'll finalize the wrap design and stitch it into place for the feet of the socks.

#

Results:

1] The left foot wrapping was better and I didn't even need as much cushion as I gave myself. I think I'll try just stitching these sweater sleeves into regular socks or turn them into boots themselves because I like them. I can always make other liners with cushion pockets stitched into place. 

2] The taping held the inside soles in place perfectly. I'll cut the tape off, keeping it in one piece, and use it as a basic pattern for the felting that will replace the tape - with the waterproofing going on next and leather (probably) with maybe (likely) more protective coating on the outside.

3] The leather straps give my ankles some extra support and also keep everything snugged into place when I'm walking/trotting/running. Laces do the same thing.

4] Over all it was a good combination and my feet are in fine shape. They were warm but could still 'breathe'.

Up next:

- I want to try stitching a bunch of layers of some flannel into liner boots and see how that works.

- I've got a couple of lighter-weight sweaters (one's lambswool/angora and the other is merino, bright red and black respectively) I can make into boots themselves and also use as liner boots just by taking the inside soles out. (see below) So I can 'layer up' on my footwear if I want.

One thing about the lighter weight fabrics being turned into boots is that you can remove the inside soles and the lighter boots fit right into the heavier boots as liners, even with thick socks inside of them - or you can put some layers of whatever you want cut to your foot outline inside of them and have pretty darned comfortable soft-soled stocking slippers. The rubberizing makes 'em waterproof but is almighty flexible.

- The bodies of the sweaters are up for grabs as to what I'm going to do with them. I've got mittens and a scarf to get stitched to match the dark red boots I've got done; a sweater vest was left when I cut the sleeves (above) off of that one and I'll probably just keep it that way. The neckline of the black sweater is perfect for the headband part of a pull-on cap; mittens from part of the bottom hemline (pretty standard because it's a sensible use of that part of the sweaters, and matching mittens are always fun); there will be a bunch left so who knows what that will become - socks maybe, or a scarf ... 

- Another option for liner boots would be fleece, yep. 

- Hmmm ... I wonder ... you know the athletic tube socks? Why can't we make that kind of sock out of fleece, the soft snuggly stuff we use for those funky blankets all the time. Well, we can of course. How easy is that? Pretty easy.

*laughing*

I may be a little over-tired, but the thought of Pippi Longstocking thigh high socks made out of that snuggly fabric sounds like a great thing for winter, yes it does. Gotta use really wide elastic (and not too tight) at the top though, or you'll cut off your circulation.

*laughing again*

Yep. Put a pair of those foam soles in them, rubberize them, take the inside soles back out, add a few layers of the same stuff cut to fit your feet to replace those foam soles, and you've got some really weird (but snuggly and warm) slippers. Or some awesome winter liners for the felted wool boots.

Mm-hm ... over-tired. Told ya.

And that's about the extent of my thought processes for this night.

At any rate, I've got a weekend off coming up so (as soon as I get my winter firewood situated) I can get some stitching done.

Heh.

Once I get these plain (very plain) boots done, I can bling the heck out of them if I want. It's not like there's a shortage of beads and wire and ... stuff ... around this place, you know. Peacock feathers even. Pheasant too, for that matter. There are times it's nice to live in hunting country. No we don't hunt peacocks, but we hunt pheasants and all kinds of other critters who have useful feathers and such.

DIY Felted Wool Boots - Getting them cut down to size

Yeah I know this doesn't how much. I'll get more 'in progress' types of photos when I get time. I'm cutting it close the way it is here before I have to start getting myself ready for work.

A few days in a row with shifts to fill has been plenty of motivation to at least start getting those incredibly comfortable flip-flop soles trimmed down to size. They're not  yet shaped the way they're going to be but I'm in no great big hurry to make my cuts too deep.

If ever you've carved something out of wood (or stone for that matter) you know that once you've removed a bit of it ... it's removed forever. You can't jut glue it back on and have it be the way it was.

So I'm taking my own sweet time with these soles.

For tonight's shift I've got them in the thick brown felted wool boots. The soles are taped but not the sides yet. Those won't get done until the sole is in its final shape.

The time to work on these is extremely limited by the very job whose demands spur me to get them done.

This time I've dispensed with the leather strap ankle fastenings in favor of yet another experiment: leather laces that happen to be the same color as the boots. 

heh heh 

Not that you can see them anyway since the boot tops are turned down over them.

So we'll see how they hold up. I've got them criss-crossed five or six times (they're plenty long!) around my ankle and so far they're doing the job. We'll find out soon enough what will happen during eight hours of constant speed-walking. 

My feet have plenty of room in them, especially the right one at the moment because i don't have time to even trim it down any more right now. That's the one I'm liable to walk out of if the laces give way, LOL!

I'm not ever going to pare these things down to a snug fit, not the ones I'm planning on using for shift work. I do have a pair that is snug to my feet which is fine when I want to show off my darling little feet - but those are not for these purposes.

These are for WORK.

Even when I get the inside soles the way I want them, the edges taped securely into place (to give them their final shape on the outside), the backs of the heels reinforced (to keep my toe-walking from pushing the inside soles backward), and the rubber coating applied to the bottoms and up the sides (for water-proofing and grip) - I'm still going to leave plenty of space in the uppers.

I want that space both for wiggle room for my toes, breathing room for my feet, and to accommodate the felted wool 'booties' - the liners that will add their comfort to the whole by providing a bit of cushion to the toe part and at my instep for extra arch support - those cushions will be built into the liners.

At any rate, I'm out of time so had best get on my way to the eight hour on the job trial of this particular stage of the development process.

People tell me I ought to market them but that's not exactly gong to work to well.

Mine are specifically designed for my specific feet and my specific gait and my specific ob. I'm doing my experimenting as I go along, testing and testing to see what works and what doesn't.

I reckon I could get outlines of peoples' feet and build them some boots that would without a doubt be a lot more comfortable than what they're probably wearing - but the individuality of their arches, their unique gaits (how their feet and legs move when they walk or run) and where they tend to put their weight ... these are variables a person can't get from a simple foot outline. AND I wouldn't know what they want them for necessarily. 

These are for this job. I wouldn't want to run a footrace in them and I wouldn't want to climb a tree in them and I wouldn't want to ride a horse in them (thinking stirrups and boot-heels here). When I get my final pair finished I'll leave that pair there and wear them only for that job. Other pairs will be for other uses, each specially designed to fill the needs of whatever that use might be.

DIY Progress on Boots

And here we go!

Cut sweater sleeves from sweater.

Slip the foam soles inside.

Wrap  edges around - I leave a space for the tape to adhere to the soles.

Secure with duct tape (or however you want).

Screwdriver to open can of liquid rubber.

Paintbrush to apply.

Water for clean up.

One hand inside to hold while painting.

First coat painted on.

Waiting for paint to dry.

I've got two coats of the liquid rubber on. It's thick, almost like a glue, but spreads well with a stiff-bristled brush. It probably wouldn't go on quite as well with a really soft brush.

I let it dry for a couple of hours before putting on the second coat. We'll see how it works with two and add more if needed.

At any rate, the liquid rubber isn't nearly as smelly as I was afraid it would be, and actually does clean up with water. That surprised me because its function is to be waterproof!

One modification I'm going to make is to cut a piece of felted wool that fits the bottom of the foot and goes up the heel area. I'll still use tape but just a strip down the center of the sole to both hold the sides in place on the underside and keep a grip on the soles. I'll cover it with the felted wool, mainly for aesthetics. I can do that with this pair tomorrow if I want, and just put another coating of the liquid rubber on over the top.

So tomorrow will be my first day wearing the sweater boot design with rubberized soles. 

*laughing*

I'd better make darned sure they're all the way dry or I'll be leaving Smurf-prints all over the place!

WHOOP! Boot Experiment In Progress!

When they say blue, they mean blue.

This is the gallon of liquid rubber I found on my front porch when I got home from my shift tonight. I won't be able to do anything with it for a while - between my job shifts, Duck Fest, and gathering winter wood my hours are pretty well spoken for - but it's here!

I'm having a tough time right now, restraining myself from getting those flip-flop soles cut down to size and shaped, and am eyeing the foam pads I've got ready to use for patterns ... thinking about putting them into the liners and giving them a dip ... but no I'm not going to do it. This stuff has an adhesive quality; it would without a doubt permanently glue my foam soles to the wool outers (which is kind of the point, after all) - and there go my patterns.

So ... 

I'm going to wait until I've got time to cut myself another set of foam soles before I go wrecking my pattern soles. 

The foam soled boots are still experimental, using the old worn out boot tubes. They'll be fine themselves, but not as great as the boots that will have the thick soles of the flip-flops. Those are the ones I'm going to want to be not experimental so I'll hold of on making them until I've got the new sets of tubes that my friend is making for me.

Meanwhile, I've got these two old sets of boots to work with, foam to cut into soles, and liquid rubber to dip them in or paint onto them for the outer water-proof soles and sides. I've also got those sweaters coming, remember. They'll be experimental as well since I'm not sure exactly how they're going to felt up.

Being as it's already been a long day and I'm tired, I'm seriously reining myself in here and not going to try anything tonight ... much as I want to, it would end up keeping me busy and awake all night - not smart when I've got a very long and busy day tomorrow already. I'll wait until I've got the time to devote to it before seeing how the felted wool will absorb the liquid rubber, whether it will adhere to the foam soles, and how many coats it will take to make these boots the way I want them to be.

Thankfully tomorrow is supposed to be dry so I can wear my experimental pair (without the water-proofing, the untreated felted wool gets soggy when it gets wet) for my shift. I've had a couple of days without them due to it being wet out - my feet aren't happy with me about that.

As soon as possible, it's on with the experiment!