Here we have the second shoe in our 'Get Inspired' series, designed and made by @lillaejuhaszshoes 'Get Inspired' is a series of shoe design collaborations with the intention to inspire our community to unlock creative ideas and apply them to shoes.
We were kindly gifted these gorgeous butterfly motifs by @abakhanfabrics (which we are totally obsessed with by the way!) so Lilla naturally designed a whole pair of shoes around them.
In case you hadn't noticed yet... can we just take a moment to appreciate the butterfly-shaped insocks! I mean…. how gorgeous are they!
Lilla used our crystal ball heels, which are now back in stock in our supply shop, (OMGGGGGGGG FINALLY!) and now she’s just sitting tight and waiting for a nice sunny day to wear them :)
First step was to choose a colour palette which complimented our little butterflies and created a super simple design which let them be the star of the show. Making the leather straps was the most time-consuming part of the project, but only took about 2 hours all in so not too bad at all.
The original design actually had an ankle strap but when we started to assemble the shoes we realised that they looked over designed and really didn’t need them, so we just left them out. Thats the great thing about making your own shoes, you get to do a bit of product development and see how things look as you go.
The main thing to mention about the straps is that we added a fabric adhesive tape through the centre of the straps, this is a step I always like to take when I am using super soft leather as it will stretch too quickly without it. You could also use an iron on interfacing as an alternative if the fabric adhesive tape is too tricky to get a hold of… I got mine from a shoe market in Istanbul a few years back but I’m pretty sure you can also buy it from Algeos.com.
With a shoe so simple like this its all about paying attention to the details, we squared off the toe shape on the shanked insole board to elevate the design and attached a full leather sole so that the area under the clear heels are really neat and tidy.
When it came to the yellow butterfly shaped insocks, this was also an afterthought and wasn’t actually part of the original design but OH MY GOSH they really pulled the whole design together and completely elevated the shoe! Lilla only made this one prototype, (classic of Lilla to get it perfect on the first go!) and then stepped it up another notch by adding a decorative stitch.
Pssssst… I’m going to let you in on a little shoemakers secret, whenever you see stitching on an insock like this, it’s just for decoration and actually isn’t stitching anything to anything - we see a lot of ‘fake’ stitching in the footwear industry but I must admit I really love the way it looks!
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If you are wanting to dive a little deeper into the world of home shoemaking, my online Footwear Masterclass is one of the most popular shoemaking courses in the world!! 🌍 (Casual brag! lol)
The course covers how to make shoes from scratch including heels, flats, boots, sneakers, sandals, and more. The thing that really sets this course apart from others is that it's specifically designed for total beginners and requires very little in the way of tools & equipment, there's even a bonus module on how to start your own shoe brand. To make getting started even easier, the course comes with a FREE Shoemaking Starter Kit, delivered to your door, anywhere in the world! 🌍
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Happy Shoemaking, Amanda xx
Pssssssst.... If you want to have a look at the shoes our students have been making, give us a follow on Instagram.
