How do I make a pair of boots!?

Question

I have these hella awesome boots in mind that I want to make, because I want to be a fashion designer, but how do I make them? lol, yea, weird simple question, but I want to know. Like where do i GET THE MATERIAL to make boots. I want the outer material to be like suede, and also want to but a little wedge on the boots. HOW IN THE WORLD do I find material to make a wedge, how would I make it, and how do I get it in the color I want.

Additional Details

Theres more to the boot then just a wedge and suede, but I don't want to give it away, and I could figure out how to do it anyways.

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

Ummmm- My grandpa taught me all about this. He was an Army Captain and liberated Hermann Goering's personal bootmaker(it wasn't by choice) and got a very beautiful pair of boots for it.
What it is is leatherworking. Suede is a type of leather more than anything, any other material suitable for boots, and many common other neccessary materials will have similar qualities. This involves soaking(taking dyes and materials into account) stretching, steaming, cutting, forming, shaping, punching, stamping, threading, sewing(which are not the same) and finishing of material significantly different and more difficult than fabric, but with similar qualities. It involves a whole world of specialty tools and equipment that isn't really substituteable and all equally necessary. You may need to hire or work with a specialist.
You sound like you have vision. I'm also interested in many radical fashion ideas- would like to do a lot of designs someday if I can. Drop me a line at [e-mail]

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

Cool! Sounds hard, but I'm up for it. Thank you all so much for your help!

Answer 2

You need to go down and visit the shoe repair guys - they have leather and stuff. Making boots is a huge job.

Answer 3

wow making boots seems hard
but my thought is you could get a pair of shoes that has the wedge you want and take it a part and re-cover it with the material (you can find suede in fabric stores) with the shoes you can use the pieces as a pattern to make it easier and use epoxy to put it together ... and you could try talking to your local cobbler i'm pretty sure they know most about this:)

Answer 4

If I decided to attempt making boots this is what I would do.

I would go to a second hand store or garage sale and find a pair wedge shoes for cheap monies and remove the soles and discard the upper parts. Where you get the material depends on whether you want real or fake suede. I would go with fake because a) it is much cheaper b) you can buy faux suede at many fabric stores. After getting my fake suede I would make the upper parts according to my design. I would then take the soles and the upper parts of a cobbler or someone who specializes in shoe repair and ask them to assemble them. Sewing or gluing soles onto shoes requires special equipment and know how which is why there are shoe repair stores in the first place. A cobbler will probably charge you a reasonable price to do this.