Being out of routine is frustrating.
It’s been one of those weeks where I don’t remember what I’ve done, because it went so fast that it all blurred together, or I did so much that I just lost track. Maybe both.
It took me a second to really think a bit about what went on. I felt really unproductive. In some ways I feel I did a lot, but maybe it was a lot of nothing.
On reflection, I think the reason it felt unproductive is because I wasn’t following my usual bootmaking routine. The week was disrupted due to a few non-business related items. e.g. Life.
These were a real nuisance to deal with, but they had to be done. For example, I had to get my Malaysian drivers license.
Disruption frazzles my efficiency.
Up until now, I’d been driving on an international drivers license, which was always accepted. But for those of you living in emerging markets, you’ll know how quickly (and sometimes nonsensically) policies change, re-change and backtrack, especially for foreigners.
Around 6 months ago the policy on driving licenses changed with no warning. Conversions of foreign driving licenses were banned, and more or less all foreigners were required to get a Malaysian driving license.
As you can imagine, this lead to a pain in the ass process of needing to find a driving school, pay an inflated ‘foreigner price’, then go through the testing motions.
The largest time waster was spending around 15 hours over the last month ‘practicing’ driving next to an instructor. There was also a full day classroom session, another half day theory test, and then eventually a full day practical test.
I have many more opinions about all this, but as Mum always told me, ‘if you’ve got nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all’.
Maybe my memory is impacted by bad moods.
Back to business. When I do reflect on what I got done during the week, actually I realize it wasn’t as bad as I thought (aside from wasting time on the above). I think my brain was tricked because because I wasn’t following my usual order of work (i.e. bootmaking).
Strange right.
I had started working on a pair of Afterhours loafers a few weeks ago. This one was a little special because it wasn’t a colourway from the existing range. Instead, the customer had seen a pair of my own boots in a particular leather and asked if I still had some. A beautiful textured Italian shoulder in a mid-brown tan.
This, paired with a dark brown leather outsole and heel stack, turned the standard Afterhours loafer into a something quite elegant.
So last week I did the outsole stitching, built the block, sanded and finished it. It’ll be featured on the IG page as boot of the month at some point.
Memory loading…
I’d also finished off an interesting boot that I was building for a friend as a housewarming gift.
Well actually, I had a dual intention to my gift. The pattern was Backcountry, the Frontier line Chelsea boot. But I wanted to do some materials testing with it, using materials that I’d be using for the upcoming Everyday line facelift.
In particular, I planned to be introducing a Chelsea boot on the Everyday line last. But as the pattern wasn’t completed, I used the Backcountry pattern on the Frontier line last, and for the build, used the materials I was planning on using for the Everyday line facelift.
A veg tanned leather insole as usual, but I used 3mm instead of 5mm for added flexibility. I also wanted to test out a Texon 520 type non-woven polyester board as the midsole, with the idea of replacing the current 3mm veg tanned leather midsole.
I had two reasons for this. Firstly, it would bring the weight down. Something that Asian consumers are very sensitive to. Secondly, it would also bring the cost down. I planned to pass all the cost savings of replacing the leather midsole straight to the customers.
I also made the boot using a 360 degree stitchdown construction, instead of the current 270 with tacked heel. As the heel of the Everyday last is quite narrow, I wanted to widen the attachment point to the midsole there.
This was to make sure there was a solid base for balance, particularly for an Everyday boot that people are doing a lot of walking with.
Making it 360 degree stitchdown forced the heel attachment to the mid (and thus outsole) to be wider, and thus more stable.
I was also testing webbing materials for pull tabs, so included two pull tabs made with a twill webbing instead of a stiffer herringbone weave.
Anyway, I finished that pair of boots. Good.
They had already been lasted a few weeks ago, so I did the midsole stitching and then cemented on the wedge. The wedge was also something that was new too.
A different compound of the revised Atlas wedge, to be released with the Everyday line facelift. The manufacturer had already given me a sample to test. So on it went.
My build queue was up to date.
So I had some ‘spare’ time. This added to the feeling of a broken routine somehow.
I started patternmaking for the Ambassador line, the line of Outstation dress boots. The first drop is planned to be a 4 inch chukka.
I still haven’t decided whether I want to release the Ambassador line before or after the Everyday line facelift, but the more I sit on it, the more I think to push the Everyday line facelift back.
My reasoning is that I want to get all three boot lines into the market (Everyday, Frontier and Ambassador) and by the time that’s happened, 2028 has rolled in.
It’ll be a full 3 years since incorporation, so about the right time for the first line of boots released (Everyday line) to be facelifted based on market acceptance and field feedback.
The long design process with a new last.
I’d already shipped in a two styles of dress boot lasts from my manufacturer some weeks prior, so after some very prelim patternmaking, I wanted to see which one I preferred.
I needed to choose one last to lock in for the Ambassador line, and then I could order the remaining sizes for that last.
I already knew the two dress lasts styles were a sharper almond toe than the Everyday last, with less noticeable toe spring and a higher heel height of 25mm vs 20mm.
And between the two potential dress lasts, one had much more volume in the ankle, heel and across the vamp. I think it’d fit more types of feet, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it just didn’t look sleek enough.
In the end I didn’t choose that last. I was afraid that too much volume would balloon out the sleekness of what I envisage a dress boot to be.
And, based on my experience doing patternmaking for The Wanderer facelift, I know that I can design a pattern for a lower instep and lower volume last in order to make sure it fits most feet.
There are many ways to skin a cat it seems.
I usually do any prelim pattern testing with paper, and went through around ten pattern iterations before settling on something acceptable.
It then moved from paper patterning to lasting with scrap leather. Because the last is new to me, it takes significantly more time to understand its curvature, and how the design lines flow on them.
Not to mention, leather has more stretch than paper, so what looks good with paper on the last, maybe doesn’t translate with a lasted, stretched leather upper.
After a few tries using leather, I wasn’t really satisfied. I sprung the vamp further, tightened it at the tongue seam and adjusted the backstay and facings.
Despite the pattern not yet being finalized, at least I had a correctly lasted upper. Meaning, the upper fit the last, but the curves on the pattern pieces weren’t yet in the right places.
Normally at this stage I use cardboard insole board, lasting then cementing the upper underneath it. Five days later, I take it off the last and put it on my foot to check the volume, anatomy placement, height, facing lengths etc.
With all of these, I was relatively satisfied.
I was beginning to make the third iteration of the pattern from leather, when I ran into a problem.
My postbed sewing machine broke. Well, actually, it was the flat spring on the bobbin casing that broke.
And the cat bites back it seems.
I use a Honkon 810 direct drive postbed (HK-810D) machine for closing my uppers.
This style of machine is the workhorse of many footwear manufacturers, with a million other brands out there built using the same chassis. I bought mine straight from the manufacturer in China.
To date, it’s been really great. A stable machine that’s easy to use and consistent in its output. It doesn’t sound as sexy or smooth as other machines, but it does the job.
I’ve jammed it up many times with thread. Locked the flywheel. Broken multiple needles on the plate, but aside from the scratches and dents, it still stays true.
And as long as I keep oiling it, it just works. Fuss free.
The maker machine relationship.
For some reason, when I was closing the latest set of test patterns, the tension on the bottom thread was completely loose.
Actually, I’d noticed it when I’d replaced the bobbin with a fully threaded one, but didn’t think much of it until I started sewing.
Similar to driving a car, the more that I’ve used my machine over the years, the more in-tune I’ve become with what it likes, dislikes, as well as the sounds, smells and feel of sewing with it.
After disassembling the bobbin mechansim on the post, I found the culprit. Somehow, the flat spring on the side of the bobbin casing had snapped.
This spring is held to the casing by two screws, one of which can be turned to adjust tension of the bobbin thread.
And when I’d been turning that screw, the tension wasn’t increasing. That was already the first sign of either the thread on the screw being stripped, or the spring having a problem.
How the spring snapped, I have no idea. Maybe I was particularly rough popping the empty bobbin out of the casing the night before, who knows.
Long story short, I needed to replace the bobbin case with one that has a new spring. Luckily replacement parts are relatively easy to find for such a common machine. Also lucky was that it wasn’t a problem with the revolving hook mechanism that the bobbin case sits in.
Either way, time is my issue. Effectively, I knew I’d be out of action for at least 1-2 weeks whilst parts ship in.
It was lucky I was up to date with my order book.
Bobbin case ordered, now waiting.
And that’s how the week went. In a blur, just like other weeks, but with an added feeling of incompletedness because of everything else that was going on or went wrong.
As I often mention, the action of journaling forces me to reflect, and this is only when I realise that often things are actually not as bad as they seem.
In the case of this week, I know I was busy. I guess though, that feeling of routine and ticking things off my list of shit to do was missing.
Well. I ticked things off, but they just weren’t the things I wanted to do, in this week.
Structure can be both the killer and the winner.
It’s a fine line between being structured to bring efficiency versus being so structured that my mind can’t adapt when things don’t go to plan.
The amount of unforeseen disruption, and now, having to deal with an out of commission sewing machine, meant that my perceived value add during the week wasn’t as high as it could have been.
Which is totally incorrect, because in the end, I’d accomplished items that I needed to work on in the future.
I guess it all balances out in the long run.
