Beading (Manek) Tutorial – Part 4: How To Take Measurement On Your Foot

Continue from Part 3: Interior Beading

Once you have the shoe’s faces filled up with the beads pattern, you are ready to have them made into a nice pair of Peranakan Kasut Manek (beaded shoes). If you have a local shoe-maker who knows how to make Peranakan Kasut Manek (beaded shoes), you can always get them to measure your feet. If you can’t find a shop that you can personally go there to have your feet measured, you can always follow this tutorial to trace out your feet, get the size and send it to the Peranakan Kasut Manek maker.

Basically, all you need to measure is the length and width of your foot. We might have different sizes for both our feet,  so use the larger one as the reference size.

Prepare a piece of paper that is larger than your foot. Tape it down on the floor.

Place your foot on top of the paper, bend down so that you can trace the outline of your foot. You can choose to wear a stocking to trace if you were to wear the kasut manek with it, or you can just trace it bare-footed.

Make sure you are holding the pencil upright and perpendicular to the paper, not angling in or out from your foot. Trace a neat outline of your foot and make sure the pencil stays snugly against your foot.

Draw a centerline for the width and length of your foot just like the first photo shows, measure them with a ruler, and write the measurement down. You need to substrate 3/16 inch from the reading to offset the small space between the pencil line and your actual foot. Refer to the tables for the size of the shoes, get the one closest to your reading.

Length = _____ inch- 3/16 inch = ________ inch (refer to chat 1 for your shoes size)

Width = ______ inch – 3/16 inch = ________ inch (refer to chat 2 to for you shoes width)