Medieval Middle Age Shoes

Medieval Middle Age Shoes

Medieval middle age shoes have become a fashion statement of the present year. People enjoy wearing medieval shoes to functions like weddings and conventions. There are also people who wear them just for fashion and comfort. So if you have an interest in sewing, you can easily start a lucrative business stitching together medieval shoes.

People are nowadays ready to pay hefty prices for these medieval shoes. There is not much investment required to start a business in sewing medieval pairs of shoes. Of course, leather is the most important necessity, followed with shears for cutting the leather, a stitch marker to mark the stitches to be made, an awl for cutting purposes, saddler's needles for sewing and wax to polish the shoes.

The procedure of sewing a pair of medieval shoes is not too difficult. It is enough if you have an interest and some skill in sewing; learning the process is not difficult. You first have to measure the feet of the client on an unfolded paper bag. These drawings are then transferred to more durable medium like cardboard; be precise in the drawings as a quarter an inch of sloppiness changes the foot size. This drawing is then transferred to the leather using a stitch marker. Once the preferred design is chosen, the leather is cut using the awl, and then stitched according to the design. Wax is of course, used to polish the completed shoes.

Medieval shoes are found in many different patterns; in some designs, the whole shoe is cut in a single piece of leather with no separate pieces made. Other designs involve the shoe being made of separate pieces of leather to be stitched together. These different cutting styles produce different shoes. It is up to you and the customer to decide on which shoe design to choose.

The choice of leather you use for your business is important. The leather should be flexible and durable as it has a great impact on the shape and the strength of the final product. It is the oak tanned calf leather that was most famous in medieval times, and so may be the preferred leather for most clients. However this leather is not widely available. So use 1.5mm thick chrome tanned cow leather should be used instead.

To make the medieval shoes more waterproof you can use a leather dressing like Coachaline. Decorating the shoes with a punched or stamped decoration enhances the look of the medieval shoes. As you can see, not much investment is involved in this business. However, you can easily charge up to $80 for a pair of shoes. This provides you with a great margin; so you could imagine the profit you will make creating medieval shoes. You could also make these medieval shoes to be sold on your own website or through eBay. Just place advertisements on the internet, with some testimonials and you are bound to get some eager customers turning to you for a pair of these unique and stylistic medieval shoes! Just think, sewing only two pairs of shoes a day proves to make this a rather lucrative business; so why not have a go at it?

Some resources:

http://armstreet.com/store/footwear/1/

http://www.medievalshoes.com/

http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/shoe/SHOEHOME.HTM

http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/shoe/RESEARCH/GLOSSARY/bdef.htm

http://www.medievalcollectibles.com/footwear.aspx