Lisa Sorrell, cowboy boot maker

I got one of these boots on the last and paused to show it to Flora so she could admire how precisely the design details were in the correct place. She looked at it, and without missing a beat said, “Now do the other one.”
Goodness, I’ve trained her well. 

I think I’ve posted this pair once already, at this very same stage, but I wasn’t happy with the way they sat on the last the first time. I left them sitting for a while to make sure and they made me grumpy every time I looked at them, so if I’d continued I would have felt grumpy every time I worked on them and then I would have done a bad job. So today I took them off the lasts, re-wet them, and lasted them again. My inner demons have quieted now and it appears I will be allowed to continue without being in a foul mood. 

I spent almost all day on the computer and didn’t get back to my workbench until 4pm. At that point it’s easy to give up but I persevered, and cut and skived all the sunflowers.

Finally jumping back onto this sweet little pair of shoes

This is what I’ve been working on. The customer needed a zipper and I decided to give my new shoe making patterning skills a workout. The first attempt I told myself that it was out of my skill set, I couldn’t do it, it was too hard, and I completely overthought it and had a disaster. 

This is the second attempt. I calmed down and thought about it, realized it was much less complex than I’d told myself, and whipped out another pattern. This is a fitter’s model, made of scrap leather and with no attempt at beauty, so she can try it on and I can make sure it actually works as it should before I waste a bunch of kangaroo and time doing inlay/overlay. It does sit nicely on the last though so that’s hopeful! 

When we discussed her boots I instantly had a vision of a zipper going down a completely straight side seam, at an angle so I could make the counter nice and long. The first time I tried putting all the shape into the seam without the zipper but that drug everything off sideways. This time both seams are completely straight and all of the shape is sprung behind the vamp and counter cover. The foot will be blue ostrich. I’ll put a wide blue ostrich strap over the seam and probably a wide strip of blue ostrich as a flap over the zipper, unless she wants the zipper left exposed. I bought a really pretty zipper with all different colors of metal teeth so I’m conflicted on whether or not it should show. 

Introducing: “Sally In The Garden”

I pulled the last (always a relief to know it’s out with no problems!) and rough-shaped the heels on the vegetable shoes. The customer will have three choices for shoelaces; which one do you think he’ll choose?

I got this pair side seamed yesterday. There are lots of design details to line up at the seams on these!

I side seamed this pair of boots today and I’m pleased with how they’re coming together. 

Soles stitched on the vegetable shoes, but the leather is still too wet to peg them. If you try pegging the soles when the leather is too wet, it’s grippy and hard to drive in the pegs.