LEATHER and SHOE MAKING

Leather

Please read this text. The descriptions for the goods are very scant. Here you have more extensive information.

 This is the last of my leather stock. The upper leather pieces are all suitable for doll shoes and range from thin to medium thickness. The glossy ones are all vintage kid shoe leather (chevreaux), thin, firm and perfect for doll shoes of all sizes. Ladies shoes were made of this beautiful leather during the 1950s to 1980s (I had a number of them, beautiful shoes made in Spain). Any excess thickness of the seam allowance can be removed with a leather skiver.

 There are also matte upper leathers that are all soft and thin, also eminently suitable for doll shoes. Some are very thin and would be best underlaid with either a piece of bias fabric, the same leather used double or a thin lining leather, spray-glued together, leaving the seam allowance free, so there is only the outer one to fold under the inner sole. Any tiny scraps left over are really good for lining the inner sole.

There are a few pieces of very old, super thin leather (green with spots and some brown with age spots) and those are very old book binding leather. I would recommend to underlay these (minus seam allowance) with a piece of the soft matte leather. Shoes made with this leather look quite antique.

 You will find a few metallic leather pieces, they are a little thicker  and also suitable for doll shoes. Skiver the seam allowance though.

 Then there are a number of full skins. Some are goat split skins, very thin, some lamb split skins. Split skins are exactly what it says: they are split off and are thin. These are suitable for doll bodies, (reinforce the stitching to prevent tearing), doll shoes, little doll bags, lining shoes etc.

- These split skins are yellowish-beige, greyish-beige  color and off-white color. The yellowish-beige and greyish-beige  have a textured surface, the off-white ones are smooth.

 Another skin is very old and yellowish - cornsilk color, with many age stains. It is very soft and I seem to remember it is goat but cannot swear to that. If you carefully stretch it bit by bit with your fingers, it becomes creamy white, very soft and is quite beautiful. Lovely for shoes, bags and small bodies that are not stuffed tightly – it can tear along the stitching, so reinforce the seams. It is worth the effort.

 Sole leather

Most of the sole leather packs contain thin to medium leather, some are even stamped with the Jumeau stamp. There are just a few thick leather packs suitable for very large dolls. You will need leather scissors to cut these out. Sole leather is uncoated, the thicker leather is cowhide, the thinner ones uncoated goat and lamb nappa. There are a few pieces of lightly tinted thin sole leather pieces. Use them as they are. You can rub the cut edges with some Vaseline to obtain an older look. This is best done after the leather is glued to the shoe.

 

Some more leather information:

 Chevreaux = a very high quality, fine, coated, smooth, quite firm, usually softly shiny kid-skin in many colors (shoes, bags belts) – it barely has any stretch. The most expensive of the goat skins. Rub the leather vigorously as if you were rubbing a patch of fabric to make it soft and supple and give it a somewhat “antique” appearance.

 Goat grain split = thin to very thin, uncoated, dyed or undyed, sometimes textured, soft goatskin (doll bodies, shoes, shoe linings, bags, book bindings) - dyes well.

Hint for textured split leather surfaces: Rub in metallic model car paint (such as Revell) and remove the excess with a dry cloth. The paint holds very well. The effect is very classy, turning a boring, plain upper leather into something special.

 Leather thickness for sole leather:

 Thin = +/- 1.5 mm

Medium = +/- 2 mm

Thick = +/- 2.5 mm 

There is only one of each leather pack. The prices are kept low, the quality, especially the upper leather, is exceptional and many are almost impossible to find nowadays.

A metric tape measure has been taped to the side to give an approximate idea of the sizes. Each block of either black or white indicates 10 cm (4").