Lisa Sorrell, cowboy boot maker

It took a minute, but I finally convinced myself to start today’s work. The boot top pattern is created by stitching all the design lines on a sewing machine with no thread in the needle, and if your presser wheel rolls over a line of stitched holes it will smush them closed. This sort of design stitching is done in an entirely different order than actually sewing the leather and you’re constantly trying not to run over any previously punched holes the entire time you’re doing it. Now that it’s done I am far more enthusiastic about making these boot tops.

Two pairs of boots are completed and ready to ship to their new owners.

“Saddle It Around”

“Steel Pony Blues”

I didn’t necessarily intend to get the magnolia boots side seamed and turned today. When I arrived at work this morning there was a man who’d driven all the way from Nebraska to shop at my store. He’s a boot maker and one thing he’s been having problems with is sewing on the vamps and counters and trimming the side seam. I happened to be right at that stage with this pair so I offered to let him hang out and watch as I put them together. After he left I had some momentum going so I just followed through and got them together.

The magnolia boot tops are finished and I’m actually kind of sad. This design required a significant bit of mental energy to visualize and create, and now what am I going to think about?

In leather inlay and overlay, stitching does more than just hold everything in place. Stitching is the only way to add small details or create movement, and this is the sort of stitching I love to do. Once I’m finished, instead of large shapeless white blobs, they will be transformed into distinct flowers with petals and veins. There’s so much detail in these flowers that I elected to hand draw everything, and then accurately drawing it all again backwards was a challenge.

These boot tops were incredibly difficult to pattern and put together but they are nothing but sweet fun to stitch. I knew they would be! I usually don’t look forward to stitching but I’ve been eagerly awaiting getting these together for days. Even my sewing machine, which spent all day yesterday complaining about tension and the bobbins I’m using, developed the nicest possible mood as soon as I brought these to her.
Tomorrow, assuming I actually get to spend time in the boot shop, I’ll add all the detail stitching.

If I did a poor job of trimming an edge, my old boss Jay Griffith would tell me it looked like it had been gnawed off by a beaver. I felt the tool slip as I was trimming behind the beading so before I went back and fixed it, I had to tell myself that it looked like it had been gnawed off by a beaver.

Yesterday I built and shaped heels on these boots. The plastic form, called a last, inside the boots weighs around 2-2.5 pounds depending on size. I shape the heels on a sanding wheel that’s slightly above waist height for me, holding the boot out in front of me against the wheel, turning and rotating the boot, flipping it around and repeating on the other side. The larger the boot, the heavier the last is, and the brown boots are a size 12.5.

I’ve also added some weight training to my exercise routine in an attempt to bulk up my arms and shoulders. Yesterday these two things collided hard and by the time I got home I will confess to some plaintive whimpers as my arms and shoulders and upper back made their complaints known. I’m feeling better today but I think as a special treat I’ll just work on a pretty boot top and not lift or shape anything.

Stitching boot tops is the only part of boot making that occasionally bores me. It’s also the only part of boot making that I’ve ever done working for someone else so I think perhaps I associate it with having a job more than being self-employed and in charge (which can also be a job, I will admit). I turned the music up today and sang along, and that’s getting me through it. I told Holly I had the music up loud in an attempt to drown myself out so she wouldn’t have to hear me, because if there’s music on and it has good harmony, I WILL sing.

Finally, I have all the pieces put together. I had to make a couple of very minor corrections but it went together so incredibly easily. Stitching will add the final small details and pull it all together, plus I still need to figure out what I’m doing with the flower centers, so I’m far from done.

Pro tip: If you will spend as much time as necessary thinking through your design, carefully creating your patterns, and accurately cutting and skiving every piece, putting it all together will be the easy part and you won’t have to fight it.