Bay Bertea took her first shoemaking course at the Jewish Community Center on the Upper West Side less than two years ago. She is a quick study: Next month, she will launch Good Design, her own line of eco-friendly footwear.

A growing number of crafty New Yorkers like Ms. Bertea, tired of spending $500 or more on a pair of dorsay pumps or strappy sandals, are embracing the Old World art of shoemaking.

Inspired by years of searching in vain for the perfect pair of shoes, Ms. Bertea, 35, quit her job last year as a marketing manager for an organic wine company to develop a collection of pumps, boots, and sandals, made of “sustainable materials” like wood, recycled plastic, rubber, and fruit latex.

“The motivation, initially, was quite selfish,” Ms. Bertea, who also took a shoemaking class at Make Workshop on the Lower East Side, said. “I would look at shoes, and say, ‘That is a really beautiful color — too bad the sole is not well-made.’ A lot of shoes out there seem to be more about form than about function, and I’m trying to create something where the two can meet.”

Classes in shoe design and creation have been cropping up throughout the city, and attracting both avowed amateurs and aspiring entrepreneurs who are plying this labor-intensive craft far from cobbler shops in Europe, and even farther from the huge footwear factories in Asia. The trend has would-be shoemakers clamoring for coveted slots in shoemaking courses offered at the Fashion Institute of Technology, the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, Make, Puccio & Mackay, and elsewhere.

An expert shoemaker who teaches classes at FIT and the JCC, Emily Putterman, said her classes have attracted magazine editors, hedge-fund managers, physicians, and a name-brand psychic. Ms. Putterman said some of her students see shoemaking as a hobby, some see it as a prospective career, some are hoping to create a comfortable shoe for their hard-to-fit foot, and many are just footwear aficionados who are looking for less pricey alternatives to Manolo Blahnik boots or Jimmy Choo slingbacks. “You go into Jeffrey’s, Barneys, or Bergdorf’s, and the average shoe sells for $375 — and it’s going up,” Ms. Putterman, said. “It used to be the outfit that was the main expense, and now it’s the shoes, too.”

The JCC offers six 14-week, 42-hour shoemaking courses a term, Ms. Putterman said. Each semester, students complete two pairs of shoes. Beginners make mules and pumps, and more advanced craftsmen create platform heels and boots. These courses, in which students learn how to design, cut, form, and assemble shoes, cost $350 for members, and $420 for non-members.

Shoemaking is becoming an increasingly popular specialty at FIT, according to the chairwoman of the school’s accessories program, Ellen Goldstein. Over the past five years, FIT has increased its footwear design courses to four from one, Ms. Goldstein said. “The market is ripe for people to do this,” she said. “Ten or 15 years ago, there wasn’t really a niche for a small designer to go out there and become an entrepreneur. Today there’s an opportunity to capture a small sliver of the marketplace, to make a name for yourself, and to make a decent — if not a really good — living.”

Ms. Goldstein said that interest in designing accessories — handbags, jewelry, and hats, in addition to shoes — has risen dramatically in the past five years. During that time the number of people applying for one of the 25 slots in the accessories associates degree program has grown to 300 from 100, she said.Tuition for that program is about $1,500 a semester for instate students.

Not all shoemaking students are looking for a career, to be sure. Marjorie Hong, a corporate project manager, said she took the beginning and intermediate shoemaking courses at Puccio & Mackay in TriBeCa to develop a new hobby. “Making shoes is very challenging,” Ms. Hong, who is in her 30s, said. “It’s not only about patterning and developing a creative concept. The execution itself is not easy from a physical and mechanical perspective.”

A company founder, Sissy Puccio, surmises that the growing interest in shoemaking is in part a response to the industry going overseas.”I think people are fearing that the art will be completely lost here,” Ms. Puccio, who teaches group and private shoemaking courses in New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, and San Francisco, said.

Ms. Puccio’s two-day, intensive small-group courses cost $954. She said classes begin filling up twoyears in advance.

There’s also a waiting list for the shoemaking courses at Make, which offers $250 to $450 seminars on designing and crafting sandals, pumps, boots, and moccasins. The workshop’s founder, Diana Rupp, is also looking into adding a clog-making course to its repertoire. “With so much being mass-produced, with everything so readily available, I can see the appeal of having something one-of-a-kind,” Ms. Rupp said of the fascination with custom-made accessories in general, and shoes in particular.

A Brooklyn-based sculptor, Jesse Moore, who has taken two footwear classes at the JCC, describes the hand-carved “waisted” heels she designs as “sexy, ironic, and little bit cute — very Betty Boop.”

Ms. Moore, 41, is in the process of building a new sculpting and shoemaking studio in Williamsburg, and is slated to begin selling her eponymous line of shoes in the next several months. She already has eight orders for shoes, which she plans to sell for between $800 and $2,000. She said she believes women in New York are willing to pay for quality, custommade footwear. “People buy shoes at Prada for $1,000 every day,” she said.”My shoes are more interesting. Someone can bring in fabric to match an outfit, or they can request heels to be a certain height.”

She added, “In a way, it’s about executing a dream.”