Lisa Sorrell, cowboy boot maker

I put the Karner Blue butterfly boots on the last this afternoon.

I had an appointment this afternoon and was scheduled to give a presentation about cowboy boots and their history this evening over Zoom to the Rhode Island Historical Society. During the appointment, while I couldn’t check my phone, I convinced myself that the presentation was actually scheduled for yesterday and I’d written the date down wrong, missed it, and completely ruined my reputation. Speaking is my favorite thing — it doesn’t make me nervous — but I regularly stress myself out worrying I have the date or time wrong. (I did get the time wrong once and missed my presentation slot. The organizer switched a couple of presentations and forgave me, but I still panic just remembering.)

Fortunately I had gotten the date correct and everyone seemed pleased with the presentation. NOW I can relax.

This was my closing screen.

Introducing: “Take Me Back To Tulsa”

I’m going to rough shape the heels before I go home so they don’t have to sit in my shop with ugly heels all night.

One boot is turned right-side-out and one hasn’t been turned yet.

Y’all want to know a really good feeling? It’s when you decide to get soles laid and stitched before you go home, so you lay the soles and you stitch them and everything goes great and you go home.

Don’t judge a book by its cover; don’t judge leather inlay/overlay before it’s stitched.

I decided to do the wingtip first so I could see the shapes and colors. The wingtip flowers are small and require utmost precision. Even cutting slightly outside the line on one flower and slightly inside the line on its mirror image would result in two flowers that are obviously different sizes. The piece for the inside of the flower must also be cut accurately; it needs to be big enough to cover the decorative shape cut into the flower but small enough to not hang out the edges.

Also, glueing on a flower that’s simultaneously under the olive band and over the olive band is a little fiddley.

I wasn’t really feeling like a person who wanted to work today* so I decided to inseam because it’s my favorite thing. I put on the Osborne Brothers and they sang me through the afternoon.

*I felt like an independently wealthy person of leisure but my bank account said LOL, no.