Lisa Sorrell, cowboy boot maker

This is the most complicated original design I have ever done. It took me a couple of hours just to put them together. If you notice that a whole lot of work happened between Picture #1 and Picture #2, you are correct. I am making boots alongside my current student so I can demonstrate on my own boots and she can do everything herself on her pair since she is an experienced shoe maker. She’s very good on a sewing machine and despite never having done any inlay/overlay/stitching as cowboy boot makers do, she stitched her boot tops in good time yesterday. I was putting my tops together while she was stitching and we finished about the same time. In order for me to catch up I stitched my boot tops for four hours, as fast as I could, without a break, and completed them by 6pm. I was very happy when I finally finished! Today we came in and added the vamps and counters (foot parts) to our completed boot tops. Tomorrow we will sew the side seams and perhaps get them on the lasts.

Oh, I forgot to add that my pair will eventually have a wingtip. Ostrich leather is very likely to twist during lasting. If there’s no wingtip you can just allow the foot leather to be off-center and last it anyway but if there’s a wingtip, the wingtip must be accurately centered on the toe. I decided to try lasting the boots, letting the ostrich have its way if it decides to be annoying, mark where the wingtip needs to go, take the boots off the last, sew the wingtip on, and re-last them. Will this be easier? I’m not sure, but at least I’m not stressing about the boots twisting when I last them.

This little pile of flowers took me the entire day to create.

Don’t forget to join us tomorrow for the Speaker Session with the Malpass Brothers and me! And don’t forget to register now so you can join tomorrow.

https://www.therogersvillereview.com/arts_and_entertainment/article_52cedf8d-4c8d-470e-8d83-af24af84257a.html

Hey everyone! The Malpass Brothers and I will be chatting with the Birthplace of Country Music Museum about cowboy boots and stage wear at 7pm EST on Tuesday, February 10. You should join us!

Many boot makers have strong feelings about using scissors; my mentor Jay Griffith wouldn’t allow scissors in his shop, not even to cut threads. I use scissors for some tasks and knives for others, but to demonstrate that I’m equally proficient with both I cut one of the flowers on the right with a knife and one with scissors. I will say that cutting the little inside flower-shaped hole with scissors is not ideal. For the larger pile I’ll do it as I normally do — I’ve cut out all the flowers shapes with scissors and I’ll cut the inside holes with the knife.

No one taught me to pattern so I developed this slightly obsessive method on my own. When I first started I would have used the large pattern on the left, laid it on the leather, rubbed a powder bag over it to transfer the design, cut out that flower, and repeat… over and over. What I hated most about it was how much leather is squandered because it’s impossible to accurately position each piece. To avoid accidentally getting close to the edge you leave too much space and waste leather. Cutting each individual pattern piece before I begin takes a bit more time, but using those poster board pattern pieces to trace around results in absolutely accurate patterning with very little waste.

I put the Karner Blue butterfly boots on the last this afternoon.

I had an appointment this afternoon and was scheduled to give a presentation about cowboy boots and their history this evening over Zoom to the Rhode Island Historical Society. During the appointment, while I couldn’t check my phone, I convinced myself that the presentation was actually scheduled for yesterday and I’d written the date down wrong, missed it, and completely ruined my reputation. Speaking is my favorite thing — it doesn’t make me nervous — but I regularly stress myself out worrying I have the date or time wrong. (I did get the time wrong once and missed my presentation slot. The organizer switched a couple of presentations and forgave me, but I still panic just remembering.)

Fortunately I had gotten the date correct and everyone seemed pleased with the presentation. NOW I can relax.

This was my closing screen.

Introducing: “Take Me Back To Tulsa”