The mid-heel Mary Jane shoe is the ideal style to start with when learning how to make your own DIY shoes from home. Although slightly more challenging than your classic court shoe, the Mary Jane is suitable for shoemakers of all levels, and transverses all seasons and trumps all shoe trends. 👠
Mary Janes have gotta be up there with one of the most classic footwear styles around! Similar to the court shoe, the Mary Jane has the extra addition of a strap that can be fastened with the buckle of your choice. 🌟
To help you get started, we've made a downloadable mid-heel Mary Jane pattern in sizes EU 35 - 44 (that's UK 2 - 11).
In an effort to make shoemaking a more accessible craft, we've made this downloadable shoe pattern easily printable from home, and have included a step-by-step closing sequence to help you along the shoemaking and home sewing process.
The PDF shoe pattern is available for instant download and prints on sheets of A4 or Letter size paper. All you have to do is print at 100%, cut out the patterns, and tape together any that have been broken up to fit on an A4 page.
What you'll need:
- Upper and lining materials of your choice.
- Matching polyester thread.
- Scissors.
- A domestic flatbed sewing machine, with a denim or leather needle.
- Water-based glue and a safety beveler, which you can find in our Beginners Shoemaking Tool Kit.
- 10mm or 15mm buckles of your choice.
- Buckle elastic.
Step by Step process:
- Trace and cut out the linings and uppers in your chosen material using the same pattern. *Remember to flip the pattern pieces to get left and right feet.*
- Stitch together all back seams and side seams of your uppers and linings, stitching 5mm in from the edge. Open the seams with a little glue and skive away excess bulk. *Both these seams are closed seams, so stitch right sides together.*
- Glue and fold over the 5mm allowance on the toplines of your uppers.
- Apply a little glue along the wrong sides of your upper and lining toplines. Using your side and back seams as references, match together the uppers with the linings and stick the toplines together. *The 5mm trimming allowance on your linings will sit 5mm above the topline of your uppers.*
- Cut 6cm of buckle elastic and position your buckle in the centre, leaving 3cm of elastic on either side. Sandwich 1cm of both ends of the elastic between your upper and lining pieces. There is a guide on your pattern indicating where to position your buckle elastic and at what angle.
- Stitch your toplines together. Go slowly when stitching over the buckle elastic. Open up your upper and trim away any excess elastic with scissors.
- Trim off the front half of the trimming allowance, leaving some at the back to help with the lasting process.
- Punch holes into your straps and insert the straps through the buckles.
You're now ready to last your uppers! 🎉
To give you some inspo, why not check out these crystal Mary Janes we made for our 'get inspired' series 🌟
If you make a pair of handmade Mary Janes of your own, we'd love to see! Send us your pics via Instagram: @icanmake_shoes. I can't wait to see the amazing shoes you make! 💖
learn shoemaking for yourself
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.
