Lasting the Back
To pull the back down once the front is fixed, remove the nail holding the upper on to the last at the heel. With the pincers, tug the lining, working from the inside waist to the outside waist or vice versa, with special emphasis at the very back of the seat.
This is to take out any wrinkles and stop the lining being caught up when the upper and lining and stiffener are gripped and pulled down together. For this bit of lasting, the pincers cannot push the upper away from the last very far, and at this point, the lasting becomes quite difficult.
Make sure that the lining and stiffener come together with the upper, or they will smear paste on to the last and wrinkle at the top of the last, making it difficult to pull over, or even leave a lump inside the topline.
Use the leverage of the pincers to pull the bottom of the upper down
to provide material to wrap under the insole, while at the same time,
making sure that the topline clears the top of the last by pushing it
with the fingers of the free hand.
The lining may have to be pulled a bit more here to clear it at the top
of the last and if it is needed, the upper may be pushed back up again
to allow the lining to be straightened before pulling it down again. Make
sure that the insole does not get curled up with the lining.
When the topline has pulled down to the back height mark, put a heavy nail through the upper, just down from the topline, so that when any more pulling is done, the top will stay right on the line.
Pull the upper, lining, and stiffener under the last at the backseam,
and fix it to the insole with a thin nail.
The stiffener must come over the edge of the insole to be fixed, so it will set and provide rigidity to the back of the shoe. If it doesn’t, then the upper will not be held in place at the feather edge and will collapse at that point and the stiffener will be useless, so always check this.
The next two pulls are made at right angles to the edge of the last in the area that the front of a heel would come to, which is about ½ way down the seat area from the back of the last.
