I have been working on this pattern far too long, for a few reasons. First I made the pattern based on the duct tape model I made of my foot. Here you can see the finished model with my foot still in it.
You can also see the initial markings I made for the centre line of the foot, and the top of the shoe. And I'm wearing a nylon anklet to make it easier to take my foot out. I cut down the outside of the ankle, through the nylon. After I took my foot out, I used duct tape to re-close the slit.
I won't go into all the cutting, fiddling, and measuring, but after that you make a mock up of the pattern using a double thickness of craft felt, and try it on. They recommend doing a one piece slip on shoe, so I did. Then I did some adjusting, and thought it fit pretty well, so I cut it out of leather, made the sole, stitched it all together, and tried it on, and it was not fitting the way it was supposed to. So then it sat in my craft space for a very long time, and nothing happened.
I have a book with actual shoe patterns in it, and it showed adding darts in the upper of the pattern in this type of shoe - two in the front, and two towards the back. Because a slip on shoe has no strap or ties, the upper has to be better fitted to stay on. I am not a fan of fitting stuff - when I sew clothing, I'm always having to adjust things for me, and it's my least favourite thing to do.
But finally, I made the 4 darts in the mock up, which I'd fortunately kept, and it really wasn't that hard. But because my foot has a B width front, and an A width heel, the mock up was still a little loose. By that time I was more confident, and made a 5th dart on the outside right close to the heel. I made a new pattern using the adjusted mockup, cut it out of the leather, stitched it together, and voila!
I am very happy with the fit of these shoes, and it makes me more confident to try another type of shoe - something that ties up, this time. I decided to wear them a bit just to make sure they were the right length with enough toe room in the sole, and that was also a good thing. I had made these with some half inch foam between the insole, and the sole - just to give a little cushioning. After walking around in them at work a couple of days even though the shoes felt incredibly comfy, my feet were sore. That surprised me because I had been walking around in moccasins at work for months, and my feet didn't get sore from that. But I figured it out. The soles of the moccasins have two layers of leather with 1/8" thick felt in between - really, it's even thinner than the soles of my shoes. However, when I walk in the shoes, my foot gets a brief cushion from the foam but that almost immediately flattens out and my foot slams against the firmer surface of the rubber sole. In the moccasin, the felt is slightly cushiony, but doesn't compress much further, so the jolt is less. I tried walking around a bit with the shoe on one foot, and the moccasin on the other, and could feel the difference immediately. Always new discoveries - that's part of the fun of creating, even though sometimes I need to take a break to figure things out.