2 Lines In Shoe Making That You Should Know

In today’s shoe making  post I want to talk with you about two most important lines in shoe making that you should know, especially if you are a beginner in shoe making.

I want to explain you why those lines are so important and how to find them correctly on the shoe last to start making your shoes.

The right placement of these lines on the shoe last is actually your second  step in creating your shoes. After you will cover your shoe last with masking tape-first step of shoe pattern making, to move on you need to find these two lines:

Central Frontline and Central Back line - on your shoe last to create the shoe pattern.

Central frontline and Central backline

Why you need to have these 2 central lines on your shoe last?

• The front central line and the back central line divide the shoe last on two parts outer side  and inner side.

• Because the shape of the outer side and inner side of the shoe last is different, you will need to use the outer side pattern as a reference, adjust it and make the inner part of the pattern. 
• This is how you will get a perfect full pattern that will include the outer side design and inner side design and they will look identically although they will have a small difference.
• To design only on the outer side of the shoe last VS full design (the outer side and the inner side)
• When you will copy the design of your shoes from outer side to the inner side you will have more precise pattern than if you will apply the design of your shoes on the inner side by your eyes.
• It is easier and faster to apply design only on the outer side and then just copy it to create the inner pattern..
• In complicated shoe designs with many details it is almost impossible to design by eyes on the inner side of your shoe last and get the identical design on both outer and inner  sides.

How will the correctness of the central front and the central back lines will influence on your work?

If you will not find these two lines correctly on your shoe last it will be very crucial:

• In assembling and sewing of the pattern parts, especially if your upper pattern consists from  few details in front part

If your front central line won’t be straight and will lay exactly on the center of the front area, then when you will assembling all parts,  you will have crooked upper.

Because you need to assemble every detail of the upper from the center,  when in each detail the center will be in different place, you will get crooked upper.

• In making of the footwear with central fastening (laces or zipper)

If your central front line and central back line are not correct, so in the footwear with central fastening ( for example oxford shoes), it will be impossible to last your upper correctly on the last and get beautiful shoes. 

When you will start to last your oxford shoes you will need to place the upper in the way where the line of the quatres (where central line passes) will lay exactly on the center of the shoe last in the front.

If your central frontline or back line were not correct in this pattern, the back seam (where passes the back central line) will lay not exactly on the center of the heel, but it will lay on inner part of the heel, or in the outer part of the heel.

As a result the back part of your upper will be crooked, or the front part as well, if you will try to place the back seam in the center of your heel.

So let’s learn how to find these two lines correctly on you shoe last to have correct pattern and beautiful shoes! 

Now, to make all this long explanations visual, I made a short tutorial. If you want to learn more about different pattern making techniques, techniques to solve most of your shoe making problems, to know which tools you need for pattern making, you are invited to visit this directory: "Shoe pattern and templates".

Watch the tutorial at the beginning of this article and comment below how you will implement it in your work.