Lisa Sorrell, cowboy boot maker

Gasp, wheeze, pant…
As I was pulling these lasts Flora and I were talking about how getting the last out can be such a point of worry. Having a last stuck in a boot is so stressful and it’s hard for little old me to pull them. I do have a last puller but sometimes you have to help ease them along by hand too.
But they’re out and we’re cruising now. All I need to do is shape the heels and then dye, ink, and polish them and the sole edges.

After laying and stitching the sole, the next step is pegging the soles. One of these soles has been pegged and the other has marking indicating where I’ll place the pegs on the second sole.

Immediately after taking this photo I sprayed the wood pegs several times. This will make them swell up like an angry porcupine and the sole won’t look nearly as pretty. But after they dry I can sand them flat without worrying they’ll swell up again when the wearer walks through puddles.

I came in yesterday to lay soles and stitch soles. These are both jobs that I don’t like being interrupted while doing so I often choose to do them on a weekend. If everything goes well it’s quick and easy, although I do like to wait and let the glue cure for 30-45 minutes before I rough-trim the sole edges prior to stitching. Some makers guide off of the last inside the boot when they stitch soles but I guide off the sole edge so it has to be trimmed to shape before I can stitch soles.
Today I’ll peg these soles and then the only thing left to do will be finish the soles and sole edges, and build the heels. Oh, and the reason one sole is darker than the other is because there’s always one sole that stays wetter longer than the other one.

I worked incredibly hard all day long, but only about an hour of it was in the boot shop so lacing in one pair of shanks is all I have to show for it. I did cut and prepare the shank covers and the soles and if I have any blessedly quiet moments I’ll be ready to go.

I finished the toes on the fire fighter boots this morning and inseamed them this afternoon; now I’m going home!

What should I do while waiting for toe boxes to dry? Start another pair of boots, of course.

Here’s a close-up of the new boot project. I made up this technique but so far have failed to also make up a name for it, but what I’ve done is stitch the negative spaces behind the design rather than stitching the design itself. 

I’m in the middle of completely re-footing this pair of boots that I made in 2002 for a firefighter. These boots feature a one-piece top; instead of a seam up each side of the boot there’s a single seam up the back. It requires a whole different set of patterns and the challenging part is sewing the hard counter (heel piece) into a tube. This is difficult because the counter isn’t sewn flat onto the back panel. Instead, it’s “sprung.” In this case means that the center back point of the counter is forced higher onto the back panel than it would normally sit, which pulls the back panel into a curve. Trying to hold the counter in place while sewing up inside a tube is not a whole lot of fun, but once it’s done the work goes back to Difficult Level instead of Extremely Difficult. (One piece tops are never Easy Level.)