Lisa Sorrell, cowboy boot maker

Inseaming is sewing the narrow strip of leather welt to the boot through the insole. This is done with a heavy cord that tapers at the end so it can be attached to a bristle. The bristle guides the thread through the stitching holes so you can pull the cord through. The cord attached to a bristle is called a Waxed End. Making waxed ends isn’t any fun but I enjoy inseaming. The stitches need to be pulled down tightly so they won’t open up with wear; inseaming is physically tiring but it gives you great muscles. I inseamed two pairs of boots today!

In this photo you can see one pair of inseamed boots and waxed ends made for two more pairs of boots.

Success! Goodness I’m tired. (But also, don’t they look good?!?)

The measure of a successful boot maker is knowing when to quit, and by that metric I am a very successful boot maker. I have to leave early today so I wet these boots down at 11am and thought I’d get them both on the last before I left. Instead, it’s almost 1pm and only one boot is on the last. Ostrich is notorious for twisting when you last it but this was ridiculous. I really wasn’t sure I was going to win. The *proper* way to last a pair of boots is to last in the toe first, then the ball, then pull the heel down and last it, but every time I did that when I pulled the heel down the entire boot went sideways. I tried multiple times with zero success. Finally I decided that if the right way didn’t work the only thing left to do was the wrong way. So I lasted the heel, made sure it really was straight, and then lasted the forepart. It took some coaxing to get everything to sit right on the last since I’d started at the wrong end but I did finally succeed.
There are two well-known boot maker’s prayers; we all recite them whether we realize it or not. One is “Please match, please match” (since we’re working with rights and lefts) and the other is “Please fit, please fit.” But there’s another lesser known prayer. Whenever there are two identical tasks, one is always harder than the other, so my prayer today is “Please let that one be the hard one!” Later this afternoon I’ll learn if that prayer will be answered in the affirmative.

This is the fitted last for the beige/jade ostrich boots. You can see how I trim and prepare the insole for inseaming later.

Side seams are done and the pulls are stitched on. I guess I need to fit the last now and put an insole on it.

I need to finish a couple of pairs of boots before I start this pair, but I wanted to get all the pattern pieces for these done first. Now if I need a break I can relax into cutting and skiving little pieces of leather, which is my idea of meditation.