Lisa Sorrell, cowboy boot maker

What comes next, you ask? First I’ll sew the sidewelt on the boot front panels, then I’ll stitch the side seams. I’ll trim the side seam and hammer it flat, sew the boot pulls onto the boots, then turn them. At that point they’ll be ready to put on the last!

When you’re a cowboy boot maker, it’s not enough to create something beautiful. You have to be able to do it again–reversed.

Distortion is always a problem when you’re creating inlay into a curved piece of leather, and it still has to be stretched over the last. In other words, this boot is making me nervous and I won’t know if the vamp feather is correct until I sew it onto the boot tops, stitch the side seam, and put it on the last. Again in other words, until it’s far too late to easily fix it if it’s wrong.

This pair of boots will have a feather inlaid on the vamp (foot part) of the boots. It’s tricky to position correctly, so I drew it on the last where it should be and then created the paper pattern using the drawing for reference.

Today I’m starting a pair of boots with feather inlay. The boot top and foot leathers are on the left, and all of the leathers on the right are my selections for various feather bits.

Here’s a link to my July YouTube video.

It’s a Boot Life

My leather storage had gotten disorganized, so I straightened it up yesterday. Yes, my leather is organized by type and/or color. Bottom left is water buffalo, bottom right is baby calf, all middle/easy to reach sections are kangaroo, and the top/hard to reach sections are various pieces of calf and kid.

A pair of my boots visited me today at the Smithsonian Craft Show!