labricoleuse | Project: Custom Bucket Boot Modification

The Utah Shakespearean Festival is world-premiering Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical this summer. If you are familiar with the play, you know that a large percentage of the farcical jokes stem from three characters all wearing the same Otello costume. (And, if you aren't familiar with the play, I just told you.)

The costume designer, Bill Black, planned on purchasing three pairs of black bucket boots from SCA Boots. However, our lead actor wound up being a man with a very wide foot (EEE), short shins and wide calves--the SCA boots didn't fit! So my task was to build him some boots identical to the two purchased pairs.

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Here are the purchased boots.

This is a mockup in cheap felt, which i used to fit the shaft of the boot to his leg.
You can see my alteration notes on it from the fitting, written in marker.

This picture shows one shaft traced out with silver pen on leather, the seams stitched and glued open. I used a walking-foot industrial machine to stitch the seams, and binder clips to hold them instead of pins. The glue works like ironing for fabric seams--holds it open smoothly with a nice finish. Here's the right side:

This is a purchased pair of EEE-width boots that fit the actor beautifully.

Here you see the linings, made just like the outer shafts but in pigsuede. I stitched the linings onto the boots over the extant shaft with an oscillating-shuttle patcher machine. (If you wanted to try this at home, you can sew this seam with a stitching awl, available at most leatherwork supply shops.) The outer shafts are lying next to the boots on the table.

Here the shaft has been put over the lining and stitched along the ankle seam. Binder clips hold it even with the pigsuede lining at the tops. My measurement sheet and sketchup plan are visible in the background. Also visible is a bag of Wasabi Flavor Funyuns, snack food of the GODS.

Bootstraps!

Our actor also has some diabetes-related problems with bending over and pulling on his boots, so i made him some long bootstraps to help him with dressing. I used a double layer of heavier black leather to make the straps. We have a super heavy-duty machine that will stitch up to 3/4" thickness, so that's what i used--we only have brown thread for it, but luckily that stitching hides way down inside the boot! The only thing left at this point is to attach the cuffs at the top of the shafts...