My very first hand stitched sole. I’ll clean it up, and I have many little refinements to learn, but I’m proud of them! I plan to spend my evening whining about how tired I am, and then sew the next one tomorrow. It’s a size 6 and it took me two hours, so I’m kinda slow.
I was able to figure out the/a technique for using curved needles for inseaming, and I’m very pleased with the final outcome.
This is the first shoe I inseamed.
Class is over for the day at 5pm, and I finished at 4:59. Then I swept the floor, because that is what good students do.
The only “correct” way to inseam is the way that works best for you, and OH how I’m missing my fishing line bristles! But I am a student now, and I will soldier on.
My shoes are on the last!
Sewing the pieces together was a learning experience. I can tell at a glance which two seams I did first, and which two seams I did second. The good news is that I did improve. Bill, my teacher, told his wife that “Lisa is dealing with the fact that she’s not perfect.” I’m not dealing with it well, I might add.
Yesterday I cut out all of my shoe pieces and began sewing them together.
I’m in Ashland, Oregon, taking a shoemaking class with Bill Shanor. I watched Paige make shoes but I’ve never made a pair myself from start to finish. She took two classes with Bill, so this is kind of a pilgrimage for me–a chance to follow in her footsteps and feel her spirit.
Taping the last
Finding the center line
Drawing the design
Transferring design to paper
Bill gets to cut everything out because he’s the teacher and I’m the student.
I’ve never treed my boots until the very end; I wasn’t trained to tree them before lasting so it didn’t make sense to me. But recently someone explained that it straightens them up and makes them less likely to twist during lasting. That definitely makes it worth trying! I hope to last these boots tomorrow so we’ll see how it goes.
My old mentor Jay Griffith told me that a good top stitcher should be able to put one row on a set of boot tops (4 panels) every 30 minutes. This is a 4 row stitch design; I started it at 5pm and I finished all 4 rows on all 4 panels at 6:30pm.
I’m starting two pairs of boots this week. One is all black with four rows of black stitching, and one is bright and colorful.
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Lisa Sorrell, cowboy boot maker 