Re: Making your own Pirate Boots tutorial

[liarr]

I don't have a camera at the moment, but yes that glue is perfect. I went through 2 tubes, that looks like plenty.

I went by the specs on the caboots website - 18inch shaft and 10 inch bell. I'm between 5'9/5'10. I wanted a lot of slouch so I upped the shaft length to 20.

If you are making boots, bear in mind my mistake - The shaft being glued INSIDE the shoe is causing me some blistery pain, but I can't bring myself to take them apart.

My bells start off the same width as the shaft, and they are glued to the inside of the shaft, about 4 inches in. Then, they are folded over, leaving about 2 inches still inside the shaft, and 10 inches on the outside .

[BroadSword]

Ok...I'm 5'9" so we're close.

So you mention the mistake. Is there another way that the shaft should be glued into the shoe? The tutorial says to do it that way, but maybe another piece of softer leather can go inside the boot on the heel so the "seam" doesn't rub???

[liarr]

Well, I followed Sithcamaro's tutorial blindly, not realizing the CABoots have no separate leather panel for the heel. I had 3 pieces to attach - shaft, toe, heel. A CAboot as toes and shaft - if you could attach the shaft to the outside of the boot, it would be perfect.

[BroadSword]

Well, I followed Sithcamaro's tutorial blindly, not realizing the CABoots have no separate leather panel for the heel. I had 3 pieces to attach - shaft, toe, heel. A CAboot as toes and shaft - if you could attach the shaft to the outside of the boot, it would be perfect.

I see what you mean now. I looked at the CAboots site and now it makes sense. I'll see if I can pull it off with a once piece heel and shaft. My base boots are enroute, so maybe this weekend I can start...oh wait...I'm going to Disneyland!

[BroadSword]

So yesterday I began work on my boots in earnest. Monkied around with the pattern for a few hours and made adjustments up until the last minute before gluing began. I'm departing from the actual tutorial based on Liarr's experience and creating a one piece heel and shaft. I will then placed the toe section over the heel section and HOPEFULLY have a relatively clean look to it. Luckily these boots are slouchy and wrinkled so any mistakes I make won't be too noticeable. I'm still not sure how I will get the leater to go over the toe and around the sides without wrinkling, but I may have to just live with wrinkles. Any suggestions are welcome.

My only progress picture so far:

[liarr]

what kind of leather is that? it looks ...thin.

[BroadSword]

It's the leather I posted on page 2. It's Premium Cowhide Suede Split, the description says its 3.5-4.5 oz. It's got some thickness to it. Just hard to see in the side shot.

[liarr]

looks good so far! my first pair had a heel like that, and it was a bit tall for prolonged wear and took it to a shoe repair to have them shave it down.

[BroadSword]

I know what you mean..feels very strange!

I'm going to attempt a faux seam on the toe piece if my wife's machine will sew through it, if not...it will be the thread and needle.

[Captain McCool]

See, I actually prefer a slightly taller heel. I think Johnny's have a slightly taller heel than most of the repro's out there (at least, they did in CotBP).
The boots you're using look superb. What I would recommend for making the new leather go over the toe without wrinkling too much is to actually soak it first, then really force and stretch it over the toe of the base boot, which will cause your leather to take on the square shape of the toe, to some degree.

I'm really liking what I'm seeing on most of these DIY boots, gotta say. I have been wondering though - has anyone tried to actually stitch them? I've wondered about this for a while, and your comment regarding stitching the instep reminded me of it. I would think it might be possible to actually stitch the new leather parts to the base boots, thereby creating a stronger finished product, and also a more screen-accurate look. Most home sewing machines wouldn't have the capability to go through leather that thick, but if you had access to an industrial machine of some kind it might be possible. Otherwise, as you said, there's always hand-stitching.

[BroadSword]

Soaking it? How would wet leather react with the glue though? Or do you mean soak it..stretch it down to where it needs to be..let it dry and then glue it?? Please advise if I have that wrong.

Right now I have a good amount of excess to go down over the toe and sides so I can "tuck" the leather into the welt and expose the sole stitiching then cut off the excess like the tutoria says. My wife seems to think I should just cut the toe piece right to where it needs to be (that's what happened on the heel/shaft because I simply forgot to add excess, but it worked out). I'm just really nervous to do that because once it cut...it's cut. Any thoughts on that??

[Captain McCool]

Yes, definitely soak it, shape it, and then let it dry before actually gluing it down.

And it sounds to me like leaving excess and then trimming afterwards is by far the safest option.

[liarr]

Yes, definitely soak it, shape it, and then let it dry before actually gluing it down.

And it sounds to me like leaving excess and then trimming afterwards is by far the safest option.

its..actually not that easy. wet leather is finicky and i'm unsure how the glue will work with it.

[Captain McCool]

That's why I'm saying to let it dry before gluing it on.

[BroadSword]

More progress:

[liarr]

lookin' purdy!

[BroadSword]

Okay, so this is a (very rough) basic pattern I drafted ages ago when making fake cuffs to go on top of my first ever Jack Sparrow boots. Mind you, I strongly recommend trying this out first with newspaper, or fabric, or something like that, before actually cutting it out of the leather. That's how I actually came up with the pattern in the first place - I spent about three hours playing with a bunch of newspaper until I got it to lay basically how I wanted it.

The only major modifications to this basic shape I might suggest are #1: adding a slight point to the front (Jacks boots do appear do have a very slight, rounded-off point), and perhaps rounding out the back where the two sides meet, so you don't get such a pronounced inverted "v" shape in the rear.

Can you email me this image? It's not showing up. It would be nice to have a base to work from rather than make it from scratch.

marcus@21stpanzerdivision.com

[BroadSword]

Also...isn't there a screenshot from COTBP showing Jack's boot as he first steps onto the pier at Pt Royal somewhere? It's not on the wiki page, but I thought I saw one somplace.

[Captain McCool]

That's odd... is anyone else having a hard time seeing that image? I actually uploaded it directly to the gallery here, so theoretically it should be coming up no matter what, right?

As for the shot of him at the dock in movie #1, yes, I definitely know there's a screen shot of that, but I'm having some trouble finding it at the moment too. Best bet I'd say is to just pop in the DVD and freeze-frame it at that spot, or just take a screen capture of it yourself.

And man, after seeing the pictures of your base boots, I've got to admit, it's kind of a bummer to cover them. They're gorgeous boots all on their own. They're all battered and beat up, sure, but that's what kinda' gives them their beauty, heh. They would've make awesome Western/Steampunk boots. At any rate thought, they ARE perfect for Jack, and I can't wait to see how the mod turns out in the end!

[liarr]

And man, after seeing the pictures of your base boots, I've got to admit, it's kind of a bummer to cover them. They're gorgeous boots all on their own. They're all battered and beat up, sure, but that's what kinda' gives them their beauty, heh. They would've make awesome Western/Steampunk boots. At any rate thought, they ARE perfect for Jack, and I can't wait to see how the mod turns out in the end!

lol...i was thinking that myself. "those are the boots he's covering? but they're so nice!...well..Jack's boots ARE important...but so are nice boots...I shall keep quiet "

Just weather'em up good and make your old boots proud! I used brown + black shoe polish (LOTS, about 2 cans each) and very light spritzs of brown meltonian dye

[BroadSword]

I thought the very same thing. I did like the boots on their own, but in the end my wife agreed that they're really not "me" for everyday wear. I also have parts and pieces for a "Man with No Name" costume and thought I might use these for that, but unfortunately, they're not rough out like Clint's were and I’m already going to be rushing the last few parts and pieces to get it done before the end of the month.

As for the photo...it could be my work PC settings. My home machine died after the big blackout we had here in San Diego/Mexico/Arizona so I haven't been able to check the forum on that computer.

[Captain McCool]

Oh yeah, that sucked. My grandmother lives in Alpine, just East of San Diego, and was without power for a while herself. Totally bizarre incident.

Anyway, as for the boots... y'know... if you were somehow able to make the cuff detachable, you might actually be able to use these for both Jack Sparrow, AND the Man With No Name. The basic design actually seems to be a bit similar, from pics I've looked at. Which makes me think a bit... because if we can find a company that manufactures Clint Eastwood style boots, they might also be inclined to make some Jack Sparrow ones as well... hmmmm... anyway, not to thread hijack. I'm just always on the lookout for alternate boot suppliers.

[BroadSword]

Yesterday the wife and I spent the day working on the boots and they're pretty much done. Had to make adjustments along the way and made a couple mistakes. Overall, I'm pretty happy with them. Thanks to everyone who answered my questions and for giving the motivation to do these myself. I'm not very "crafty" so it's good that I had help here and from my wife who is MUCH more patient than me and good with this sort of thing. Just need to weather them now:

[liarr]

nice! dare I say, you and I have got some nice nonCABoots

[liarr]

as far as weathering goes, I used a crapton of black and brown shoepolish, applied in circular movements. Up/down/left/right movements resulted in streaks. I used a bit of meltonian spray dye, but I would not advise anyone to use it. It's easy to make overboard mistakes.

[Sponsored content]