Lisa Sorrell, cowboy boot maker

The insides of cowboy boots make me happy.

Also, you won’t get a neat end result unless you’re meticulous in the parts that don’t show.

The welt is that narrow strip of brown leather that I’ve sewn onto the boots by hand. The process of sewing on the welt is called inseaming, and it’s my favorite part of the boot making process. Well… inseaming and skiving a really complicated design. Those are my favorite things. Oh, and drawing designs and making the patterns for it. Also when the customer pulls on the boots and their heel thunks into the boot and they fit properly. That’s definitely my favorite thing.

Boots and shoes are built around a last — the form that gives footwear its shape. Lasts used to be made of wood but now they’re typically made of plastic, which is heavier, and the heels are built and rough-shaped while the last is still in the boot. The red and gray boots are a size 12.5 and each last weighs two and a half pounds (plus the weight of the actual boot around it). I’m always sore after building heels on a large boot, but the little size 3.5 shoe feels as light as a feather in comparison!

After dying, I go to heels.

I’m ready to dye.

If you noticed that this pair of boots disappeared from my social media pages for a while, you weren’t imagining things.

I made the boot tops and all was well, but then I added a gray calf foot and they turned on me. Nothing went right after that. The color of gray didn’t make me happy, they fought me for hours before I got them lasted, I used a tool I don’t normally use during lasting because I was filming a video demonstration comparing tools and the new one scratched the finish a tiny bit, when I stitched the soles one boot looked terrible, and a little screw on the Curved Needle that’s never caused any problems before gauged out a huge chunk of finish on the side of one boot.

I had planned to finish them before I had to leave the shop for two weeks at the end of June, but I was despondent and just left them so I could enjoy my time away. When I returned, I looked at them and realized what I had to do. I took a sharp knife and SLICED THE FOOT OFF THE LAST. It was painful, but sometimes you have to commit to doing something that keeps you from rethinking the decision. Once I made that first slice I couldn’t change my mind. Then I took the boots home and spent all evening on the couch picking stitches to completely remove the old vamp from the boot tops.

I chose another piece of gray leather — kangaroo this time — crimped it, made a new red wingtip, and sewed it on the vamps. At this point I was nervous because sometimes when you tear something apart and put it back together, it’s obvious it’s been torn apart and put back together. But I guess these boots had only been fighting me because they didn’t like that gray calf either. I sewed the new gray kangaroo foot back on and restitched the side seams by hand, and it could not have gone better. Then I put them on the last again, and they lasted like a dream. Instead of hours of fighting, I had them both on the last, with the heels wiped in, in thirty minutes.

Now I am finally back where I started, with the soles on and stitched. The stormy cloud that hovered over these boots seems to have disappeared and now they’re happy. I like this gray foot better too. It’s basically the same depth of gray but the first one had yellow undertones and this one has blue undertones and it looks nicer. Plus, while I was in Nashville I had the unexpected opportunity to see one of the original boots made by Dixon in this design and I got a better look at the butterfly on the heel. I’d never seen a full picture of the heel so I had to guess at it, and I hadn’t gotten it quite right. This version has an accurate reproduction of the countertip (heel decoration).

It’s always so hard to know when to call it and start over. Will I be able to fix it or will trying to fix it make everything worse? It’s a decision I like to ponder for a while and give my intuition time to speak. In this case, I realized I could not be happy proceeding with the boots as they were and it was a relief to start again.

Just for fun, here’s a photo of my little collection of tchotchkes (that I had to purchase) which are reproductions of boots I’ve made, along with images of the actual boots.

Note: The red/yellow rose boot image is from Tyler Beard’s small “Cowboy Boots” book. I don’t personally own a photo of those boots, or if I do I can’t find it.

Introducing: “Butterfly Love”

Modeled by the proud maker, Eleni

Eleni’s boots are lasted, the toes are in, and they’re ready to be inseamed. So far we’re on schedule to get them finished before she leaves.