The next part of the construction is to stitch on the welt – a thin strip of leather running round the front of the shoe from heel to heel. The stitching secures the welt, outer leather and lining to the insole’s holdfast which essentially completes the permanent construction of the uppers. The sole is then bonded to the upper and stitched to the welt. If the sole needs to be replaced, a new sole will have to be bonded and stitched to the welt.

Stitching the welt was much hard than I had envisaged – quite a work out! An awl is passed outwards through the hole made in the holdfast and pushed through the lining, outer leather and welt layers with the tip of the awl coming through in the stitch channel made in the welt. It takes some practice to get a consistent awl technical to make the hole coming exactly in the stitch channel. A traditional saddle stitch is use so one end of the thread passes from outside to inside and the other end of the thread inside to outside. Above – a ’lock’ stitch is used around the toe area to give additional strength. The lasting nails are removed as you go, a couple at a time just in front of the area being stitched.
A silver pen was used to mark the feather edge but it’s more difficult to stitch the instep area.
The welt stitched in place and the excess will be skived to end approx 10mm beyond the heel mark. However the stitch still needs to carry on around the heel to the start ponit and then tied off.
The welted shoe!!
The excess lining and outer leather cut right back to the holdfast. Then chalk was used to mark the shape needed for the shank (a stiffener running under the heel to just behind the ball of the foot. Once marked it’s just a matter of pushing the piece of leather to be used for the shank up against the sole to transfer the outline.
The shanks are made from a hard 6mm thick piece of leather. The sides and leading edge need to be skived down as shown. This is so they sit flat over the holdfast.
The shank is bonded in place and hammered to get a good bond. Then two layers of 3mm cork is added to the toe area. The cork layers need to be rasped to get the final profile, which is slightly domed.
Marking and cutting out the sole leather, which has been soaked in water for several hours and kept moist overnight in a plastic bag. The sole is then bonded to the shoe upper.
The sole leather is 5mm thick and is bonded to the upper and then nailed at the heel as above