Lisa Sorrell, cowboy boot maker

The front panels and back panels are ready to be side seamed. Soon it will begin looking like a pair of boots!

Bluebonnets and scissortails take a while to stitch.

This is an excellent example of a graceful inlaid and perforated (the little dots along the edges) cowboy boot top band.

Here’s a little peek at the process of assembling an inlay/overlay design. A design this complex requires much thought about how the pieces will be shaped, which parts will go over and which will go under, and what order they’ll need to be put into place. It’s always fun when you turn it over and see that all the small oddly-shaped bits have come together to create the picture you intended. Stitching will link the floating flowers and leaves, and add the final details to the scissor tail bird.

Soon we’ll find out if all of these oddly-shaped little pieces will come together to make flowers and birds.

I don’t necessarily look forward to punching hundreds of tiny holes by hand one-at-a-time, but I sure love the way it looks along an edge! When you punch holes along an edge in shoe making it’s called Brogueing, but when you punch holes along the edge in cowboy boot making it’s called Perforations.

New design for a pair of boots honoring both Oklahoma (scissortail bird) and Texas (bluebonnets)

I am pleased to report that I was able to get the lasts out of these boots today!

After I’ve built the heels to the correct height, I add the rubber heel cap. Next I pull the lasts out so I can do the final heel shaping.

Or… I try very hard to get the lasts out, fail miserably, stop before I exhaust myself too much, spray water down inside the boots, and wait until tomorrow to try again. Putting water on the pegs makes them swell up and hold tighter, but when they dry completely they’ll become brittle and ideally they will break off and allow me to pull the last out. Send me good wishes for tomorrow.