These are the boots that won a Gold Medal and trophy at a shoemaking competition in the Netherlands. I rarely ever get to make blue boots so when I do I try to choose a title with the word blue in it. I’ve named these “Invitation to the Blues.”
My apprentice Brittney asked me what the plaque said and I told her it read “Lisa Sorrell is the best boot maker ever!” From the look on her face I don’t think she believed me.
Sometimes I put a little bit more of myself into my boots.
Today I prepared a pair of boots for inseaming…
…and inseamed them. It’s my favorite thing to do when I’m alone in the shop. I had the music on and sang the afternoon away.
Here’s my newsletter for April.
Cutting alligator leather and new shank pullers on “It’s a Boot Life.”
One boot is always harder to last than the other. I’m tired and running late so I promised myself that the second one would be the easy one and…it was!
I’m preparing to last the oak leaf boots. I like the way I can control where the water goes when I spray the boots, and I like the way I can get the counter soft and pliable when I soak them. So I combine the two techniques: I soak the counter area then spray the rest of the foot prior to lasting.
I sewed the side seams yesterday and turned them this morning. They’re beginning to look like boots!
One set of red alligator vamps is on the crimp boards. The brown leather is kangaroo lining and it’s cemented to the red alligator. This is how I reinforce a delicate leather; I only reinforce the tongue area and edges. The vamp looks nicer and is easier to work with than one that has the reinforcing leather cemented all over the entire vamp.
 | D on Trivia |
 | customboots on Challenge |
 | pleasantlyconnoisseu… on Challenge |
| customboots on Challenge |
| Eugen T. on Challenge |
