DO YOU REQUIRE A SEWING MACHINE FOR MAKING SHOES? Mostly yes, but sometimes no. Most of the stitching on shoe uppers is actually serving one or some of the following purposes: -Attaching the lining on the upper material -Attaching ONE PARTICULAR panel to another -Attaching your decorative trimming/embellishment -Adding muscle to certain areas This stitching could technically be done by hand but you’ll find that it will likely be tricky to stitch by means of such thick materials and make it look neat...not to say it would take a verrrrrry extended time. For these reasons utilizing a sewing machine should make things much less difficult. You can get away without requiring using a sewing machine quotes for quality products to make a simple pair of sandals. We often work with a thick unlined leather for of our sandal straps, and occasionally will make use of a rivet to attach some sort of buckle - all without having a sewing machine. Sewing machines don't have to be scary! Most sewing machines will have a user friendly manual or DVD to support teach you from the start (if you buy one secondhand you should be able to find a free manual for the model by searching online). Attractive conventional sewing machines will also come with many different user friendly features for instance a needle threader, speed adjustment etc. We only use straight stitch with the I Can Make Shoes techniques so there's no need to master the many other stitch features in making shoes from home. The trickiest component to sewing shoe uppers is usually sewing tight curves but keep in mind that practise makes perfect. We suggest drawing some bent lines on some discards materials to stitch about, so that you can develop your confidence first. https://www.jylsewingmachine.com/Sewing-Machines-pl3226083.html