4 Design Solutions That Will Make Your Shoes Look Better

It take time to get better in any craft, in any work, practice, practice and then more practice. That is true and you can't go around it, you don't wake up one day to be a professional shoemaker, it takes time, but what can we do until then?

In today's post I will show how you, using design can fix already made mistakes with your shoes and how using design you can prevent issues that you struggle with during your shoemaking process.

During my work as a designer and design courses that I do, I figured out that people have wrong perception of what design is.

Design is not about making cute and pretty drawings of shoes, you been misled and missing the most important point that can help you in your process.

Design is a technical plan for your footwear construction. It's about knowing how technically you can and should construct your shoes, how each part should be connected so your shoes will be wearable, comfortable and beautiful.

If design is a technical thing that means that you can adjust your design to help you, to be your solution to get better looking shoes.

Design solutions 

1. Topline inside seam - If your sewing skills slowing you down and your top line seam always has curved waves, which sure don't compliment your shoes, make an inside seam.
Sew your upper from the inside and then just turn it over, this way if you even made a curve line you still can adjust it without anyone knowing it's there.

2. Welted strip- When you stumble upon situation, where you made not so accurate, not very clean work with your outsole, not a good job in general!

Maybe you sand the bottom to much or if after attaching the outsole you usually can see the glue or you always skive it to much. The solution is simple, create welted strip and attach it to your bottom, the strip will hide any mistake that you usually make there.

You can plan it from the start or you can adjust your design if this situation occurs.

3. Elastic bend solution- I personally love to use elastic bands in my footwear just because it gives so many options to what you can do.

But, if you have a very wide last and no matter what you do your topline is always lose, first make sure that the problem is with your wide last and not mistake that you made with your pattern.

The solution is, to place elastic band inside your topline, it will tight up the upper and it will sit perfectly on the foot.

4. Lasting ripped- Lasting is a difficult process and you do need to practice to do it well. When using very thin upper, during lasing you can over do it.

It happens, especially when you are a beginner and you eager to make perfectly fit shoes.
You don't need to start all over again, just change the design. You can make toe cap shoes.

It will always be elegant and fashionable shoes. Create new toe pattern, cut the unnecessary front part, skive it and stitch it together.

The wonderful thing about design technical solutions that they are very creative and will make your footwear to look great.

I will think of more design solution and will share them on my Twitter, so follow me on twitter to get more design updates and not just, for the last month twitter became kind of my ideas writing tool, so get in touch on twitter.

 Let's see what you think in the comment below.

Have a great weekend 

Sveta Kletina

New Shoemaking Video Tutorial and 2nd Submission

Currently, I have over 45 full length shoemaking video tutorials on my YouTube channel and I am so glad you gave a good welcome to previous ,voice over tutorial, that I made a couple of weeks ago. So, not to ruin a good thing, today I have a another great video tutorial for you.

How to check your shoe pattern from paper on the last

A quick announcement before I will move on to the tutorial.

I opened this week the second registration for Footwear Design Courses: Knowledge- Design- Freedom. ( This is online video course)

Course details:

^{The course : 14 Lessons
Lesson length: 45-60 min
2 Lessons a week}

^{Introduction : Understanding  footwear design or what is it mean being footwear designer.}

^{Footwear as complete product.} 

^{Don’t wait for inspirations-  Use your technique knowledge.} 

^{Technical knowledge as a key for creativity.
Full Shoe models map} 

^{Simplify the rules of pattern construction:
Workshop: 6 types of shoes
Learning the rules
Construction on the last}

^{How knowing the rules of construction will help you to create any design.}

^{10 crucial points on your last to avoid mistakes in your design.}

^{Freehand Pattern Technique-  Intensive workshop}

Registration and more information about the course please follow the link below.
Footwear Design Courses: Knowledge- Design- Freedom

Old Shoemaking Tutorial But New Me

I received an email this week from one of this blog readers. He sow one of my many free videos that I have on my YouTube channel , but got little bit confused. Well, the videos are long, I know, and you really need to be patient, I guess!
What can I say, it was made something like two or three years ago. I was just starting this blog and all I wanted to do is to share information and I did. You welcome to watch all the 40 free videos from my channel .
But I do understand his difficulty, especially as back then I had a huge fear to overcome, to record my voice on the videos, not even to film myself but just to talk in those videos was terrifying  for me. First of all, English is not my native language and it is really hard sometimes to express yourself, so I preferred to place a music, which many of you complimented me about and to add text, just to make things understood.
Time have passed and I followed my passion and it is almost 8 months now, since I started Shoemaking Courses Online. My confidence grown, my ability to be in front of the camera, and not to die, because that is pretty much what I thought will be, turned out to be great experience of my life.   

So now, going back to what I have already done, the least that I can do is to try and fix some of those videos. Today, I present to you short video tutorial, from my full, 1 hour tutorial on How to make shoes: making pattern with folds, "How to transfer shoe pattern from the last to the cardboard". 
Yes, it is in normal speed and what a surprise I explain everything myself. Enjoy, and comment below if you had a fear to overcome and how you did it?

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New Collection, new projects and creativity in my life

As it was long coming and I did stretched this as I possibly could, but I am finally in a stage of finishing my new footwear collection. I think it's a first time in years that I had the total idea and final designs for my collection even before trial and error, frustration, sleepless nights etc.. This time I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but as funny as it sound I couldn't started until recently, I was too busy. Between getting my orders done, my online courses, lecturing in a local College and designs for a clients, nothing gives me such a satisfaction and excites me as transforming my ideas and designs from my head into a real pair of shoes. That is a great feeling, that reminds me why I started design shoes in the first place. 

Footwear Design Course Is Now Open And First Tip to Get You Started

Today I'm finally launched my Footwear design course: Knowledge -Technique – Freedom , and I'm very excited as this is very close to my heart, footwear design is what I do. The course is open for new members and will be 9-10 lessons long, you can find all the information at
 

            Design Courses Is  Now Open
  

It took me a long time to prepare this one, as I did wanted to make it special and resourceful, excluding all the unnecessary information and digging into my own brain and my own work to find the answers.  As a designer I am always looking for ways to express myself through my footwear design in any shape and in those 6 weeks intensively preparing for this design course, talking design, putting myself under a spot light, asking myself questions , something that I don't normally do. I want to share a tip, that will help you and hopefully even change your perspective on creating your design.

Analyzing myself trying to find working pattern in my work, something that I use always and can't do without I found one dominant thing  and it is  "Activation Words". My Freehand Pattern technique helps a lot to use them and I personally see them as inseparable. It give me the edge and support to find the form that I'm need during creation. Although I hate systematic thinking and equations that is what I found working for me.

Activation words + Freehand Technique = Design

What is activation words? When you describe exact object that you want to create you doom yourself to create this exact object, for example- you want to design flat ballet shoes with bow on the top. That is exactly what you will get.
But using activation words like : Volume, texture, inside out, elastic, blending, interlacing etc.  You free yourself from done objects and you open your work for the creative process that will lead you to create much more than just a ballets with a bow. Understand what quality your shoes should obtain and through technique discover the opportunity of this in design.  

 More information at www.shoemakingcoursesonline.com

Kind regards,

Sveta Kletina

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25 Tools & materials you need to get started in shoemaking

I have been asked a lot about tools and materials to get started making shoes. So I posted list of  25 must have tools and materials , with which you can start making shoes without necessity of having absolutely all shoemaking staff. That's how I started to make my shoes and till now those tools and materials are still in my first priority of work. I could forgot few items and I'll be happy to know what you use in your work. It will be very helpful to all our shoemaking community, so  leave your comment below.  Follow the link in the bottom to see the full list of shoemaking tools and materials I published it at Shoemaking Courses Online.

THE LIST

1. Cutting board- this is yours work area, and it comes in 3 sizes :
450x300x3;

620x450x3;

900x620x3
I personally use the 45cm (the first one) as this one is for personal use.

2. Adhesive tape - to make it easy on yourself, please pick up good and quality tape, that holds on the last. There are different widths, 2 cm, 5 cm, 14 cm. I don't like to mess up my workspace with unnecessary things so I use the 5 cm wide tape. Because it is good for attaching it on the last and I cut them when I need more narrow stripes. Check my tutorials I do that a lot, very useful trick.

3. Cardboard- I use it for pattern making, there are many types and most of them are good, but I use Duplex, it's 180-200 gram. It must be flexible but not too flexible.

4. Metal ruler - not less than 30 cm.

5. Flexible Measurement tape - There is a specific type for shoemaking, it doesn't have the iron peace at the end, like the one that tailor uses. If you can't find the shoemaker tape, you can cut off the metal peace but remember to always add 1 cm to your measurements.

6. Compasses - This one will save you a lot of time in pattern making and to be accurate in your work and to avoid mistakes, use it!

 7. Utility knife - He can be your friend for awhile so pick a good one. First of all you will use it to cut your pattern, cardboard, tape and even leather. Beginners also can use it to skive the leather for absence of good skiving knife or skills.  

8. Blades for utility knife- They are not less important than the knife itself. As there are many different knives, there are many types of blades as well, what you need to look for is blades with 30 degrees angle.

9. Shoe last- find the right last for the model that you wish to make. Although, there is last for each model, for beginners I

Footwear Design course- Registration Is Now Open!

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN

As promised at the beginning of this week I just opened registration for my intensive online design course.

Footwear Design Course: "Knowledge -Technique – Freedom"
It is a practical intensive design course, it is an workshop to gain you the knowledge and advantages you need to create shoes that you want to create, if it's for you or for your client.
As I mentioned in a previous post , this course will be more about doing then talking. Without any expectation for your inspiration, ideas or any other excuses. Here you will come up with your own shoe designs working through your knowledge in footwear construction that you will gain during this course.
I simplified the process and understanding of shoe construction, so it will suit for beginners in footwear design as well as for more experienced designers and shoemakers.

This course consists of 9 lessons with duration of 45-60 minutes, 2 lessons a week. The cost of the course is 120 Euros.

The course will open in 25 March The course will launch on March 25th.

The course price:

Early bird registration : Until March 15 = 100 €

Members early birds: = ( Use your discount code) 55 €

Regular price : 120 €

Members: = 70 €

Here are short summary of the Footwear Design Course:"Knowledge -Technique – Freedom"

Introduction : Understanding footwear design or what is it mean being footwear designer.
Footwear design or Footwear styling
Footwear as complete product
Don't wait for inspirations- Use your technique knowledge
Technical knowledge as a key for creativity
Shoe world guide
Simplify the rules of pattern construction:
Workshop: 6 types of shoes
Learning the rules
Construction on the last
How knowing the rules of construction will help you to create any design
10 crucial points on your last to avoid mistakes in your design
Freehand Pattern Technique- How to simplify the most complicated shoe patterns. This technique will allow you to explore your creativity by giving you the right tools and freedom in design.
Shoemaking rules and freehand pattern workarounds

Intensive workshop:

Click the link for full list

The course will be hosted at Shoemaking Courses Online.

For questions you can contact me : Here



Kind regards,

Sveta Kletina








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Unlock Your Creativity At Footwear Design Course

When you are working on the design of your shoes, going deep inside of your imagination, choosing the right lines, navigating your mind between the emotions, looking for inspiration, giving meaning to your design, understanding what you are doing, exploring the unexplored, ..... do you do that or is it sound little bit strange to you?

I'm not trying to make fun of this or another way to create design, but working, learning and exploring footwear design for years I could not ignore some patterns of behavior and understanding of what is footwear design .

How to upgrade your shoe pattern in 30 minutes

This post will be short and informative as possible. In my last two posts 6 Best Value Shoe Pattern Making Tips for 2014 that I Use Every day and Why you Need To Target Your Design and Free Shoe Pattern Guide To Start Your Work I delivered very quick but powerful solution tips for you to improve you shoemaking skills. All those guides you can find at www.shoemakingcoursesonline.com in Free Tips & Guides page or following the link in the bottom of this post and sign up for the email list there so you will get direct link for every new update to your inbox.

As my last two posts had so much success and interest, I will not disappoint you and this one will be the same.
upgrade your shoe pattern in 30 minutes

Upgrade your shoe pattern in 30 minutes

Do you have shoe pattern, which you already been using over and over again? Do you want to upgrade it with minimum time and maximum effect? You can upgrade your existing pattern with small changes. Those changes are, adding folds to your pattern. You may create them in almost any place of your pattern, it will look great especially close to the top line and will make your pattern look more complicated when it's not. One condition of creating folds is to hide them under another detail, which will be stitch to it. That's why I added stripe to the top line in my tutorial. This stripe and the detail, where creating folds, this is all your changes in the pattern, because you don't need to make changes to your lining. It will be your guide to correctly assemble the upper with folds.

This is just a short but very useful guide that I use constantly in my own work, you can apply it to your pattern and see the big change that it makes. The wonderful thing about it is, that it takes just 30 minutes or less. Follow the link bellow to see this guide and check my full shoemaking courses online at www.shoemakingcoursesonline.com
Starting new cool course next week, " Fashionable Ballet Flat Shoes From Fabric" check out the pics.

Click here to view the full guide.

Have a nice week!

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Why you Need To Target Your Design and Free Shoe Pattern Guide To Start Your Work

 Since I started making my shoe pattern tutorials on my YouTube channel I was asked often about how to cover the last  with adhesive tape to easy apply any shoe design on that last. Therefore I decided to write a short guide about it. In this guide I go through each step how I cover the last to make your life easier. 

By the end of this post you will know how to cover the last like a Pro, no wrinkles, no wrong lines, do it right from the start!

6 Best Value Shoe Pattern Making Tips for 2014 that I Use Every day

Happy New Year Everybody! As I waked up early today after new year's celebrations I wanted to launch this year with very optimistic, happy start blog post to benefit all of my readers, In this post I will give away 6 best value Pattern Making Tips that I use in every shoe model that I do, and it helps me to avoid mistakes and saves my time like nothing else. But before we get to that, I want to take a minute to thank you all for the past year.

A lot happened in 2013 with this blog and this community, we definitely got bigger which is amazing in my opinion and what is more amazing and what I am personally thankful for is the support I get from you. I launched Shoemaking courses online 3 month ago, with no expectations what so ever and to see so many people joining the courses was just amazing, thank you all and I promise to keep the content in the highest level and help your growth and creativity.

Get Your Shoemaker's Tools For Great Price This Week

Today, I opened one of a kind SALE for shoemaker's tools on my shoemaking courses online store. At this sale you are able to purchase shoemaking tools in very low prices for the items presented on this sale. The sale is time limited and will be over in 6 days from the launch. It means that it will be closed at 12 December. 

Most important condition of this sale is Everything or Nothing:

Black Friday Sale and Making Heel Cover Tutorial

My current work schedule feels like one long working day, balancing between making my own shoe orders, shoemaking courses and freelance collaborations takes time, so each day I am thankful that I do what I love, because there is no way I would be able or willing to do anything else. This post was a long coming and I have a lot  to share with you .

I am very proud to announce that, last week " VIRTUAL SHOE MUSEUM" posted a blog post about  "shoemaking courses online" . Very detailed, great post , and it was kind of a weird for me , in a good sense, as a longtime follower of this website to be on it. Not just with my shoes, that  were listed on this website recently as well, but with what I do with this blog and with Shoemaking courses online, something that I am very proud of, something that I invested all of myself and I believe makes a change.  Thanks to that post, since last week, shoemaking courses online getting a massive flow of new members and interest of fashion bloggers, who discover this website for the first time, and that is just great. Big thank you to Liza Snouk, who runs "Virtual Shoe Museum".
 You welcome to read the post in the link below.

Virtual Shoe Museum 

My YouTube channel consist more then 40 tutorials and it's easy to get lost, specially with a new YouTube layout. Although I already published a post to help you find my old tutorials on making shoes and you can find it here " Here is a Post That Will Help You Find my Older Tutorials" I still have been asked to show tips and tricks that I already did, so here is the link again.
Recently I was asked by a member to show how to make a pattern and actually to create heel cover from leather. My answer to him was, that I already did, in  " How To Make Rihanna 2012 X Factor Shoes by Yourself " but he couldn't find it, and when he did, said it was too fast for him and he is use to normal speed tutorials that I have on the platform and why there is no voice over, just music.
 It made me think on all of the changes that happened since I started this blog and maybe there is a problem, specially with my long tutorials that I made and I defiantly need to take care of it. So here you go, a short ( 20 min) tutorial on "How to Make a leather cover for a heel".  It's in a normal speed, but there is no me talking like on my courses, maybe next time.

Great Shoemaking Solutions and Launching New Shoemakers Tools Store Online

Let's say you lasted your shoes, you made your heels, attached your outsoles, you have your new, done, finished pair of shoes. Only thing left to do is to take them off the last. Last week as I finished my Ballerina Shoes Course I encounter a dilemma, maybe not a dilemma, but I wanted to figure out a simple solution for my students to take the shoes off. Now, if you don't have the proper shoemakers tool you can use the hook method: you make a hole in the last, place the hook inside it and using the strength of your feet and rope ,you pull the last out. I find that method not that comfortable to say the least. I wanted to come up with something that anyone can make in their home fast, simple and cheap. So in my last lesson of the Ballerina Course I drilled a hole in a side of my old, heavy sewing machine and placed through it, 12 cm screw with 1 cm thickness, so it will fit the top hole in my last. That's it, simple is this.

You need screw and something heavy, so it will not move when you will pull the shoe. I know many shoemakers with their own solutions and tools for this and other process. So if you have, or come up with your own solution for this or other problems, you are welcome to share it on this blog.
Now as I promised shoemaking courses online platform will launch online store for shoemaking tools and supplies by the end of this week. As I still working on assembling more tools and more suppliers to enrich the platform more products will be added in the next two weeks.

In the online store you will find items like knifes, shank board, texon board, reinforcement tape, topline tape, awl, hammer, shoemakers rasp, lasting pincers and shoe lasts. More products will be added as we go and depending on the demand.
On the launch day of the store I will place 3 types of used lasts on sale in very low price. When I say used, I mean that some worked been done with them, so there are traces of nails and few scratches here and there. You can judge by yourself on the pictures below.

Ballerina Shoes Course and What Else Shoemaking Platform Have to Offer

One of my favorite courses that I teach on my shoemaking courses online for beginner level is about to end soon. It came out unexpected long, because I tried to explain and to show as much details as I could, so that you can easily make your first pair of shoes. The most important thing to me was to make it clear and understandable,  all the  shoemaking process, so that  in the you will be able to make pattern, to sew, to last, and to create heels by yourself. Only one lesson separates us from complete pairs of shoes where you will learn how to finish them, how to take them of  the last and to make the insole. You can see below some sneak peeks from this course. 

Quick note:  Because many of you don't have good connection with internet and asked me about this possibility. In short a time I plan to unit all these lessons together (it is more than 10 hours long) to create a DVD or eBook of Ballerina Shoes . It will take me time, but I will do it and you will able to purchase full ballerina shoes course on my blog here.

 Another exciting process which I'm working on now is that I'm negotiating with suppliers of various materials and tools for shoemaking , so in a really short time (maybe even next week)  they will be available on www.shoemakingcoursesonline.com.  I've been working on it for some time but I could never get it done , but now with the development of my new platform it has become finely possible to do it.
My faithful members of this platform, makers, shoemakers  will benefit from this even more; they will be able to purchase instruments and materials for shoemaking with a member discounts. And now since I have accumulated a lot of work because I was sick last week, I need to get back to work.

Good luck and have a nice day!

Sveta Kletina

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The Secret Material That Will Help You To Change Your Last Form

Finaly my shoemaking courses online started and now I have very busy daily schedule. I am not technical person and in the first week of courses I had too much unexpected technical issues that just got me off balance. One note to myself for the future, always work with professionals, it will save you a lot of time and health. Don’t worry I finally got on the right track with the help of my wonderful husband and everything working as I planned, in a very fast mode, but important thing is that it is working! In one of the first lessons that I made on the shoemaking platform I talk about one of the most wonderful materials that I found and use for shoemaking purposes and I want to mention it here on my blog as a treasure tip for all you shoemakers.
This wonderful material as epoxy glue. / A very useful update to this post! It called epoxy putty in US and you can find it in Home depot. Thank you Natasha/ It's soft like clay, and when you mix it well it becomes solid like a rock. Honestly this material is not intended for use in the footwear industry, but I found it very useful when
you have only one type of last and want to work with another last. For example you have round toe last and dream about pointy toe last to make classical pointy shoes. So in this situation the epoxy glue will be a perfect solution for you to change your last with it. The greatest thing that actually drove me to make an entire course about it is, that you can remove it from your last when you don't want pointy toe last anymore. It is removable, and that is what important. After it, if you want to change your rounded toe last to the square toe last, you can do it as well. Sure there is a method and technique working with this material, and you need to know how to make both lasts (right and left) identical , and I show it in my course.
I personally use the epoxy glue very often in my work when I want to experiment with
shapes of my existing lasts and change them. That’s why the first lesson in advanced level of my shoemaking courses I dedicated to this so useful and great ,in my opinion , theme. This method of changing you last's design will open your mind about the possibilities that you have with your existing last and you will have the appetite to create sometimes even bizarre forms of last ,as it happened to me. For example, I want to show you some of them, that I made first with epoxy glue and then copied them in plastic for bigger scale manufacturing.

  

This is the example of shoe design which I made for this "crazy" last.

It's only the beginning of my big program that I planned for my courses. During creating of each lesson I constantly emerging new ideas for courses, so stay in touch!

Do your last looks boring to you? What would you like to do with your last? What form would you like to create. Share your thoughts bellow in a comment, what last or shoes would you really want to create?

Please Visit The Only Shoemaking Courses Online Platform at: www.shoemakingcoursesonline.com

Have a great weekend,

Sveta Kletina

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The Secret Of Having Multiply Lasts Collection With Only One Last

Almost all women like to wear high heel shoes and even those women who cannot walk with high heels or don't like them, still have in their wardrobe pair of high heels for a special occasion. I am too a sinner and I have many pairs of high heels in my closet. Our need as women to wear them is very obvious, and it is the visual impact of high heels on our physical appearance. We become taller, slimmer and as a result of it we feel more feminine and more attractive. This is despite the fact that everyone knows that wearing high heel shoes deforms the women feet. We know it, but we are ready to suffer to become more "attractive" and younger. You can notice it on some women or seen it in some horror photographs of deformed feet from years of wearing high heels shoes and shoes with pointed shape, where the fingers are clenched and squeezed together.
On such feet you will see the inflamed bone, on the big toe, increased of his normal size and it called "Bunion" by the medical terms. There is more horrible deformations to the foot, but I'm not going to talk about them now.
Almost all women over the age of 50 have the big toe bone sticking out (and not just them). But I will tell you a secret! Do you know that you can have "Bunion" when you wear flip-flops or opened heel sandals without heels stripes?! Who knew, right?
The fact is that during walking, besides carrying the load of our body, we hold the flip-flops by our fingers and this creates double burden on the bone, and it increases with time. Yes, yes, I know, it's also one of my favorite summer shoes and I wear them too. But we must understand that our feet are so sensible, and to keep them healthy we have to know what to wear and how it will influence our feet.

Now let me give you an example. You wear ballerina shoes or pumps all the time and it always fit you perfectly and now suddenly for some reason every new pair of shoes are uncomfortable and you feel this pressure on the inner side of the foot. The thing is that maybe you didn't pay attention to your feet or maybe you did, but didn't do anything about it and now you have the "Bunion". It's not so visible to you, because you don't remember how it was before and bones are not so much sticking out, but a slight increase has occurred. So for those of you who feel uncomfortable in your own shoes, I want to help you out and show you, how you can easily adopt your last to your feet.

1. Find on the last the center of the big toe bone. It is the widest place on the last in the inner side (gold point A). 

2. Attach adhesive tape to this place and draw ellipse form so it center will match the point A. It's represent your big toe bone .

3. Made a pattern of it in usual way. 

4. Cut it out from the thick leather. I used thin veg-tan leather with the thickness about 2-2,5 mm.

5. Skive around the edges on the inner side of the leather. 

6. Anoint contact glue and attach it to last. 

7. Use the send paper to smooth the leather piece so it will create a smooth line with the last .

8. After you finish it wax it. 

Using this way you will fix this problem. This is just a short tip of an full course on "How to change your last in reversible way to fit your design" . It is a great solution when working with multiply designs but having only one precious last, this way you can change the last form and then get it back to its original appearance. The courses will be launch on membership platform at www.shoemakingcoursesonline.com, more information you can find here.

If you find this information useful and you own one or two precious lasts, let me know with the comment below " I need this information".



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