Bad Idea: Fitting the bottoms of the backstraps over the lasts.
As seen in photos above, the stitchlines for the backstraps get a little wonky toward the bottom. This really doesn’t show on the outside, and won’t especially at the very bottoms, which will be covered by the heel counter covers. But it shows on the inside, where the stitchlines aren’t straight.
I tried laying the quarters over the backparts of the lasts, pressing the backstraps down in place, and marking through the existing holes with a scratch awl. In the end I really should have just fit up like that to get the backstraps in place, then marked the end holes and interpolated by hand from there. That way I could have made continuous, sweeping lines.
Bad Idea: Almost going too light on reinforcement.
Big thanks to @carsten for encouraging me to think twice about adding some seam reinforcement tape here. My original plan to was to go without any reinforcement, since the toplines on my last original pair ended up uncomfortably stiff and almost too thick to put the top eyelets through. But that would have been overdoing it. Fabric tape adds good reinforcement for very little additional thickness.
I have it on my list, but not yet in my budget, to try some purpose-made topline tape. I’ve been meaning to make an order from Avetco, who stock both topline and basting tape, but haven’t been able to confirm with them that they’re still shipping orders despite a nearby fire in Los Angeles.
But for now I just used Howies hockey tape, which is a 68 strands-per-inch cotton-poly blend with natural rubber cement. I’ll be cementing the lining to the upper at the top, so it will eventually be fixed well in place.