Red velvet knee-high combat boots
Here's a project Candy and i have been hard at work on for a few days: knee-high red velvet combat boots for the Emcee!
I'll walk you through how we made them.
Costume designer Jen Caprio's rendering--note the boots.
The original image was a pair of women's boots, no longer made and never in our actor's size anyway.
We started with a pair of red velvet men's oxfords made by Dr. Marten's. I also made a mockup of the bootshafts from a gaiter pattern to fit to our performer's calves/ankles. I fit these over top of the shoes in a fitting, as if i were going to make him some gaiters. That gave me my sloper to work from. Using pattern drafting techniques, i altered the pattern to fit the curve of his legs, and split the front to include the lacing/tongue area of the boots. I made a mockup, again in gaiter format, with lacing, to fit a second time. We also located red velveteen and red leather (both scrapstock from our inventory) to make the bootshafts.
I cut all the pieces out in both velvet and leather, and Candy bound the edges of the velvet in black bias. We used Barge Adhesive (with a respirator) to glue the leather on the back, then stitched in the ditch to attach the two layers together. Candy also set in some long zippers on the inside pieces so the boots can be quick-changed. I used a machine called a patcher to attach the tongues to the Doc Martens.
Here you see the Doc Marten oxfords with their tongues replaced by much longer ones.
Bootshaft parts, velvet side up.
Here's the leather interior lining glued to the velvet pieces.
Note the lace guard at right about to be glued on to reinforce the grommet areas.
Gold grommets going in! 22 eyelets means 88 grommets!
(I should note, this red leather is the leftover partial hide from a coat made for our productions of Henry IV & V last season, for which Jen also designed costumes! I love those kinds of subtle connections.)
Here you see the pieces assembled with their back seams stitched.
The back seam is stitched with seam allowances to the outside, so the surface against the actor's leg is smooth. A strip of bias-bound leather is glued and topstitched over the graded seam allowances to cleanly finish the exterior of the boots.
Here we've just finished stitching the bootshafts to the shoes with the patcher and Candy trims our threads.
It took both of us to maneuver boots this tall through the machine!
Finished boots, ready for some laces and our actor's fabulous performance!
I'll walk you through how we made them.
Costume designer Jen Caprio's rendering--note the boots.
The original image was a pair of women's boots, no longer made and never in our actor's size anyway.
We started with a pair of red velvet men's oxfords made by Dr. Marten's. I also made a mockup of the bootshafts from a gaiter pattern to fit to our performer's calves/ankles. I fit these over top of the shoes in a fitting, as if i were going to make him some gaiters. That gave me my sloper to work from. Using pattern drafting techniques, i altered the pattern to fit the curve of his legs, and split the front to include the lacing/tongue area of the boots. I made a mockup, again in gaiter format, with lacing, to fit a second time. We also located red velveteen and red leather (both scrapstock from our inventory) to make the bootshafts.
I cut all the pieces out in both velvet and leather, and Candy bound the edges of the velvet in black bias. We used Barge Adhesive (with a respirator) to glue the leather on the back, then stitched in the ditch to attach the two layers together. Candy also set in some long zippers on the inside pieces so the boots can be quick-changed. I used a machine called a patcher to attach the tongues to the Doc Martens.
Here you see the Doc Marten oxfords with their tongues replaced by much longer ones.
Bootshaft parts, velvet side up.
Here's the leather interior lining glued to the velvet pieces.
Note the lace guard at right about to be glued on to reinforce the grommet areas.
Gold grommets going in! 22 eyelets means 88 grommets!
(I should note, this red leather is the leftover partial hide from a coat made for our productions of Henry IV & V last season, for which Jen also designed costumes! I love those kinds of subtle connections.)
Here you see the pieces assembled with their back seams stitched.
The back seam is stitched with seam allowances to the outside, so the surface against the actor's leg is smooth. A strip of bias-bound leather is glued and topstitched over the graded seam allowances to cleanly finish the exterior of the boots.
Here we've just finished stitching the bootshafts to the shoes with the patcher and Candy trims our threads.
It took both of us to maneuver boots this tall through the machine!
Finished boots, ready for some laces and our actor's fabulous performance!