Author Archives: customboots

We have two pairs of boots ready to put on the lasts tomorrow!

Eleni has all of her boot top panels stitched and she’s done an absolutely fantastic job. I was most impressed with her ability to understand how to start, stitch an entire design, and come back to the same spot. It’s … Continue reading →

Eleni is stitching her boot tops today, and finding that a good sewing machine can be her friend!If it appears she’s sitting in the dark with a circle of light at the machine, she is. All of my shop lights … Continue reading →

Eleni, a shoe maker from Greece and England, will be in my shop for two weeks. I’m helping her make a pair of cowboy boots and she’s telling me lots of things I don’t know about patterning shoes.

One set of boot tops completed

I still have to stitch inside the flowers with turquoise thread, but I’m not going to do that until I’m through with all of the green stitching. Start in one spot and come back to that place without stopping or … Continue reading →

Look what just arrived in the mail. A customer sent me this pair of boots (from 2005) for the Boot Scootin’ History exhibition at the Bristol Birthplace of Country Music Museum.

It took me a whole lot of skiving to get to this point, and evidently the little elves in my shop party all night instead of sweeping my floors.

New pair of boot tops started

Vocabulary needed for the following discussion…Vamp: the foot part of a boot or shoeCrimp/crimping: stretching the leather vamp over a board so it becomes a three-dimensional shapeCrimp Break: mechanical device that forces leather into a curve before it’s put on … Continue reading →