I know that this is about as low tech as it comes, but I couldn't resist a chance to link up an adorable white haired woman. The lovely Natalie Zee made a killer post on the Make blog pointing to a tutorial on making your own shoes. It seems that Mary Wales Loomis started wondering what it took to make a pair of shoes, and she tore into a pair of pumps with a tack hammer and pliers. After teaching herself the art of cobbling she wrote a book to teach the rest of us.

I know a bit about custom made shoes, and I can say that Mary's book uses some of the same methods that high end shoemakers do. She walks the crafter through creating a plaster cast of the foot and shaping a permanent last around which to make perfectly fit shoes. The tighter fit and lighter construction of women's formal shoes lend themselves well to craft room replication. Tear apart a few pairs of flats, and you'll find that most are only held together by glue!