Lisa Sorrell, cowboy boot maker

I love it when I pull a last and the boots sit up nice and straight and balanced. Some boots seem to be born under a dark cloud and they fight me at every step, while others are happy and cooperative from very beginning (like this pair).

It’s easy to call this fate or luck, but you know the real reason? Patterning. Patterning. Patterning. When you take the time to get your patterns correct, when you know how to pattern properly, when you’re comfortable with your patterning system and you understand it — that’s when the magic happens. I spend a whole lot of time thinking about my patterns and how to improve and understand them better.

Today has been about building heels. Also, in the case of the black boots, today has been about trying not to tweak my back getting the lasts out. I do have a mechanical last puller but one of the lasts in the black boots decided it wanted to wrestle. I sure hope the green boots are kind to me tomorrow when the heels are done and it’s time to pull the last.

I’m the US rep for a small family-owned tannery in Devon, England. Their sole and insole leather is pit-tanned with oak bark and it’s the best. I don’t talk about it because I sell it; I sell it because it’s wonderful and I use nothing else.

The first three photos demonstrate a really cool feature of the Baker sole leather. In the first the soles are almost dry but they’re cool to the touch; this is the stage I want them to be when I peg them. The soles appear dull in this photo. I’ve laid my Rub Stick across the soles in the second image. In the third image I’ve done nothing but firmly rub the sole with the Rub Stick — no polish, no wax — and that’s all it took to bring up a wonderful shine!

The final photo shows the pegged sole and all of the lovely old tools I used. On the left side are the wood pegs. They’re size 6/11, which means they’re 6/8″ long (you don’t reduce fractions in much of boot making) and 1/11×1/11×1/11×1/11″ square. My lovely little pegging hammer is lying across the bottom of the photo — she’s never allowed to touch anything but wood pegs and no one else is allowed to touch her. On top of her is my pegging haft with pegging awl, a spacing wheel for making impressions where the pegs will go, and my French hammer for hitting the flat top of the pegging haft (no one’s allowed to touch my French hammer either).

The stitched boot tops are completed and I am celebrating. I did the two front panels in one day and then had to go home that evening and lay on the couch with an ice pack on my eyes because of eye strain. I learned my lesson and only worked on the back panels for an hour or two at a time, so they took several days to finish.

Someone asked me what this stitching technique is called and I told them the answer is, “I Made It Up” although it’s similar to trapunto in quilting. It’s not fast and it’s not much fun, but it’s easy and it looks cool.

When I bought my first serger, the woman who sold it to me told me to never ever unthread it — always tie in the new threads and pull them through because it was too complicated to thread. The first time I needed to change thread color I picked up the scissors and cut off all four threads because I vowed I wouldn’t have a machine I couldn’t thread… until I met this big beautiful beast AHEM I mean Lovely Goddess The Boss of My Shop. I thought I had a foolproof way of tying off the thread but today they separated and I had to rethread the machine. There was much complaining, mostly made-up lyrics to whatever song was playing so I wouldn’t scare or offend her with an angry tone.

I rethreaded the machine without checking the manual (I know what I’m doing!!) and she rewarded me by sewing the soles so sweetly. She also gets to choose the music we listen to while stitching; today she wanted “Are You Washed in the Blood” by New Tradition. The first sole image shows the sole stitched with the channel open, the second image shows a stitched sole and the bottom of the other boot with the channel closed over the stitching.

My little turquoise alligator uppers are complete! I was searching online last night for purple shoelaces, but I decided I should come to the shop and check first. So today I opened one of my drawers full of miscellaneous boot and shoe making supplies, checked the bag of shoelaces, and found a pair in the perfect shade of raspberry to match the flowers.

I wasn’t sure about the turquoise top stitching — was it too much? — and then I remembered the entire foot will be turquoise alligator.

Yesterday was a good reminder of why I became a cowboy boot maker. I immediately loved the colors and designs, but I was also attracted to the tools and the arcane knowledge and the physicality required. A day of feeling my power as two beautiful designs flowed out of me and then moving to the inseaming bench and enjoying the strength in my arms and the feel of the little rainbow haft in my hand made me happy. 



I’ve never been sure if I found boot making or if boot making found me, but either way I’m glad it happened.

I have a customer who has requested a design with dragonflies. This is the sketch I’ll send for her approval. She prefers very tall boots and filling all of that space can be a challenge.