Just a reminder that all of my confectionery work has been moved to it’s own blog. All my conserves, syrups, paste, persona and science experiments relating to confections can be found at http://sugarwricht.wordpress.com.
Monthly Archives: May 2015
“Period” shoes
I have Charcot Marie Tooth (CMT), which I’ve had all my life. I have had a number of surgeries to stablize my feet, that make finding shoes difficult. I wear skateboard shoes pretty much all day, every day. Finding shoes for late period SCA is even harder. I’ve tried many different types of shoes, all with limited success. I am a reasonably good costumer, but often get comments on how my shoes detract from the over all appearance of my clothes. I am also a sword fighter. I need close toed shoes with reasonable arch support in order to fence on grass and uneven surfaces.
On the Elizabethan costuming FB group, someone posted a link for how to modify a pair of loafers into a period-esq latchet shoe. Loafers generally do not pass the CMT shoe flex test, so I needed something with a bit less flex. I modified a pair of black/black vans to simulate a latchet shoe. Rather than experiment on a new pair of shoes, I took a pair of Era that I had a hard time wearing on the list (don’t mind the pennsic that is still on the shoes). They are black with black soles and laces. Only equipment needed was a black sharpie, sharp fabric scissors and a little bit of fray check.
I cut along the seam line to create the open shape of the latchet.
I had pressure points on my foot with the full tongue, so the tongue was cut into an hourglass shape.
This is the final result. Fray check the seam and use a black sharpie to blacken the red logo on the back of the shoe.
On my feet:
So far they don’t hurt and they will pass a 2-3 foot rule. I’m calling this a win as I can also fence in them. Now that I know they work, I can get the Atwood flavor of van and do the same treatment as these work best for my feet. And I will have time to break them in for the upcoming war/fence all the things season.
Original instructions on this site https://sites.google.com/site/stbrigidshearth/pennywisepeasantloafers?hc_location=ufi
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