Lisa Sorrell, cowboy boot maker

This set of boot tops has been incredibly bossy about how they’re going to be brought into the world.

Completed set of inlaid and stitched boot tops, with pulls

The second photo shows what the inlay looks like from the back, before it’s lined and stitched.

I’ve really been in the mood to cut, skive, and sew boot tops and shoe uppers recently. At some point I’m going to have to begin lasting everything and building boots! In the meantime, here’s the next set of uppers on the work bench.

I finally got these shoe/boots on the last today! I’ve been quietly terrified I’d forgotten how to last shoes, but they were so compliant. Maybe this means I’m also getting better at patterning.

While these will be made on a cowboy boot last, they are shoes and they are patterned like shoes rather than cowboy boots.

I love it when my customers prove me wrong. When this client chose the colors for his boots, I didn’t think it would be bad but I did think it would be somewhat bland and I wished he’d chosen brighter colors. I was mistaken! I love how deep and rich and elegant these colors are together!

If you look closely you’ll see that there are four of the larger pieces stacked on top of each other; the design is cut completely by hand with an X-Acto knife. Same for the pulls on the right; the top one is upside down because one is a mirror image of the other. I can’t do that with the initial pulls because no one wants their initials backwards. When you skive the pieces you cut out and place them back into the work, behind the inlay, that’s called “putting the plugs back in.” It provides definition and it’s not a look I want all the time, but I do on this pair.

Finally starting a real pair of cowboy boots

I’m pretty much obsessed with the pattern for these shoes — not the design (to be fair, I’m obsessed with that too) but the way this style of shoe is patterned. I don’t even know what it’s called. It’s not quite a Derby and not quite an Oxford. I prefer Oxfords but I hate the way the tongue lining is done and since it has a closed, fixed lace gap you always have to wear the same weight of socks. On the other hand, I don’t like sewing the quarter over the vamp on a Derby. This design solves both those issues for me and so far I haven’t tired of making it over and over and over. It’s like a song I enjoy playing on repeat.

All four bluebird top panels are stitched. Considering each panel took me around an hour, I’m pleased to have them finished. My usual goal when designing and stitching a boot top is to be able to start, stitch the entire boot top, and finish right back where I began without stopping. I managed that on three of these panels, but on one panel I kept getting distracted so I had to go back in and sew a couple of things.