My Ammendments to the Geometric Pattern Cutting Method.

I have been using this method and teaching it for a number of years, and there are a few things that I have found that I had to change to make things work a bit better. If they don't apply to you, then by all means discard them. Tim.

1. Change the lasting allowances to;

   H-R = 20mm, K-R1 = 20mm, J-R2 = 25mm, B-R3 = 15mm and make the distance from B1-B2 = 40mm.

This will give a 20mm / 3/4" lasting allowance all round, so that when lasting, make a mark at 20mm / 3/4" from the toe on the insole which will set up the first draft of the upper accurately, and the vamps will be even from shoe to shoe.

2. To avoid problems with drawing the patterns;

Drop a line at right angles from B1 to join a line ruled from R2 through R3 and continuing forward. Now just round out the bottom corner. Discard the line that George draws from B2 to R3 as a guide. This is ok if you are experienced, but it leads the learner to reduce the amount of material that is needed to last up at the toe. This can lead to disaster, I know from personal experience, and trying to stitch a mudguard into place to add material, is just too difficult.

3. George uses a system of drawing the front of the shoe onto the J1-H1 line and raising the vamp by about 5mm at J1, to give the facing openings. This method is too inaccurate for me. If you are going to add the 5mm, why reduce J-J1 by 5mm in the first place. I find it better to do J-J1 as normal, and then draw a line parallel to J1-H1, but 4mm down from it. This gives you the standard 8mm gap between facings, and a more accurate picture of what is required. This first appears on page 11 fig 17, with no explanation, and a graphic picture of it is on page15, while the system I have described is pictured on page 13. For an Oxford, the allowance is only made at the top of the facings, and a line is drawn down to join the vamp at point J1.

4. The tongue;

The tongue is a tricky thing to design, as it is easy to make it either too flat with angular corners or too pointy. To get it right, measure back from E2 by 20mm to E4, and then drop a right angle from E4 down 30mm to E5. If you now join E5 and E2 with a flowing curve, this should be ok.

5. Back curve;

The back curve of a last is hard to define when you are new to this, so, on your formula you can add a point C2 which is situated 7mm out from the halfway point of H-C1. If you rule a line from C1 to C2, and then curve down to H, there will be enough room for the back of the last.

6. Topline shape;

If you make a line from E1 at 110 degrees to line J1-H1, then you can use this as a guide to give a more modern topline to the shoe.

7. Lining and "Orange Peel Effect";

When drawing in the lining at the back of the shoe, always reduce the distance from C1 to the back of the lining, by 2mm. This is because the lining has less distance to travel than the upper, and if a reduction is not made, there will be too much material and wrinkling may occur.

8. Slip-on tab shape;

When making a slip-on shoe with elastic across the top of the foot, then the position of the tab sweeping back to K1 should be moved back to about 15mm to the right of J2. If not, then the vamp looks too short, and there may be a tendency for the topline to gape. Mind you, if the foot is fleshy on the outside edge, then this can cause gaping as it pushes on the stiffener, and this distorts the topline.

For this type of shoe, add a point on the line H-H1, at a position (H2) 10mm down from H1. Draw a line from H2 to J1. This line is used to design the front of the tongue. The reason for this is that the geometric method has a built in spring to it, so that in lasting, the topline is pulled as tight as possible. This is ok with a tongue that is held in by another section that is part of, or attached to the quarters, but a tongue that is laid on top, does not get pulled down, and remains sticking up in front of the foot. The elastic and any other quarter design remains being designed on the J1-H1 line as normal.

It is preferable to also drop the top of the tongue by up to 10mm from T. The top of the elastic can also be dropped by 5mm. If a saddle is fitted, then it should be made so that the forward edge of it is about 5mm behind J-J1 and is about 30- 35mm wide. It will now need to have the forward edge at the top crossing at about J1, but not forward of this point. A parallel line should be drawn 2mm outside J1-H1, which will be the fold line of the saddle pattern. This is because the saddle has to be placed over the outside of a layer of leather, and if no allowance is made for the material underneath, then when the upper is laid over the last, the saddle will be too short.

9. Court shoe considerations;

A Mary Jane shoe which is a court shoe with a strap, can have the top of the strap pass through a point half way from J1-H1.

The throat of a court shoe should not be lowered past J1 until you are sure that the shoe works, as courts are so tricky to make and fit. If it is too low, the foot moves forward and the heel slips. Ideally, the throat should not be on the joint, but a bit behind that, where the instep starts to rise up, or there is nothing to stop the foot moving.

For a peep toe shoe, make a mark 15mm back from B1, and join that to B with a slightly curved line. To cover the toes completely and still have the cutout, then the line should come from a point 10mm in front of B1 and curve back slightly and then forward to about 25mm forward of B.

When making a court shoe, then leave the sides of the trimming allowance of the lining in place and just cut out the back so you can see the back height line on the last. This will give some material to tack to the side of the last to stop distortion when pulling down the sides during lasting. It gets trimmed away later. Leaving a fuller lining across the throat will help to avoid distortion problems there too. If the throat pattern line is drawn on the flesh side of the lining, then the shape of the throat can be kept accurate.

10. Boot considerations;

For an ankle boot, when the top has been drawn to the lines, and the back shape done, then reduce the top by 5mm at point L2, (page 97). This will straighten up the back, otherwise it seems to stick out a bit there.

At the front of on any boot, make a mark 10mm outside H1, so the curve of the front goes through that. If not, there will be too sharp an angle at this point and there will be a gap if the boot is laced up. Remember to draw a line 4mm in, and parallel to the front line to give the facing adjustment.

On the boot on page 119, there is a dotted line showing how the tongue is to be sprung down to a straight line. The thing to remember here is that the width of the tongue cannot be reduced at all, especially where the bottom edge of the tongue curves away. Another way to do this is to cut out a nett pattern of the vamp and tongue to use as a template. Now, place this on a folded piece of paper, with the top edge (L1) up against the fold at the right hand edge of the paper. Draw the end and along the bottom edge until reaching a point below where the pattern curves up and hides the fold. Now, holding the bottom edge with the point of the pencil or an awl, pivot the pattern until another section of folded edge is visible, and repeat the drawing of the line until reaching the new point under the curve. The width of the tongue must not increase, so this process must be approached in small increments. Once the vamp is almost down to the line and the pattern curves back away from the front, then the pattern may be swung a bit more on the pencil, and the line drawn in to the back edge, after which, the bottom of the lasting edge is drawn in. When a point is reached about ½ way to the front, and the vamp needs to be dropped again, then do so, but stop when the tip of the vamp is about 15mm above the fold. This is because there has been extra length gained in the springing anyway. Now drop the back of the pattern back on to the line that was drawn before and draw along the bottom from the front to the back, filling in the dip that will appear between the new line and the old. To check if this sprung pattern is ok, then put the pattern back up to the first point and make sure that the folded edge is seen at all times as the pattern is laid back onto the drawn line. It is the drawn line that is important. Don't measure the line up the front of the boot, as this length has no bearing on the pattern. If you start the springing at the fixed end (the top in this case), then the extra length produced during the process is lost in the lasting allowance, and can be trimmed off.

Page 145 has a ½ height ladies boot. It seems to me that it is leaning back too far. The top at C2 needs to be taken in or it will stick out behind the leg.

To make a tongue pattern for this type of boot, measure the front of the pattern, from the point of the front of the tongue on the boot, all the way to the top of the tongue, which is probably about 15mm above the top of the boot. Now, on a folded piece of paper, mark in this distance + 20mm to allow for the curve of the front of the pattern. Don't forget that the tongue is going to overlay point E by 10mm, or otherwise it will be underneath at this point. Somewhere, there is this 10mm allowance that must be worked into the pattern and marked accordingly. Now, measure the width of ½ the tongue, which should be about 30-35mm. Draw a curve for the top by measuring back from the end of the tongue by 20mm and measuring down 30mm and then joining from there to the top. This should give a gentle curve which will be right for the top. Now measure the width of the bottom of the tongue on the pattern, this is the distance from E measured down towards the lasting edge. Mark this distance on the pattern and join this and the top edge of the curve with a straight line. Make the lining pattern 10mm longer than this, so the lining can be put into place after the tongue has been fitted, so that at all times, a smooth surface is presented to the foot. The vamp and vamp lining can be fitted first, and the vamp lining reduced by 5mm at point E so it is not visible when the tongue is fitted. After the tongue lining has been fitted, sew across the lapped seam, and then sew around the tongue keeping 4 mm in from the edge like the tongue of a Derby, and trim out the lining up to the bobbin thread to give a stepped effect.

For knee boots, (page 161) make sure that there are instructions for reducing the back of the boot at point H2 by between 5-10 mm. Also, to find the pass line, place a ruler at about 60 degrees to the front line of the boot leg, and make sure that ½ the long heel line will fit down the boot leg, and flow into the front of the boot. If there is a lot of spare room at the back, then it is likely that the leg can be thinned down and may be too baggy. Make a mockup to test this before cutting out leather.

For Ladies zip boots, the leading edge of the zip is better if it is taken lower than that pictured. I would line up the end of the pictured zip, and take it at least to the vamp line, and if the line can be dropped, then so much the better. There is not much space to allow the foot to pass through.

Tim Skyrme.