You may observe that sometimes I say a boot “fights back” when I’m trying to last it, but I want to make it clear that whenever I say this it’s due to one of two things: I either patterned it incorrectly and am trying to correct bad patterning through hard pulling, or it’s ostrich. Except for these boots. These boots gave me hell (haha, that’s an appropriate joke) trying to get them on the last and I have no idea why. I finally decided they were possessed by satan, for real. I’ve had both of them on the last, back off the last, back on the last, and repeat. I managed to successfully get one on ..read more

The Satan Is Real/Louvin Brothers boots are side-seamed and turned right-side-out. They’ll begin looking like boots soon ..read more

I’m making progress on the “Satan Is Real” boots. The next step is sewing the side seams and then adding the boot pulls ..read more

Success! Goodness I’m tired. (But also, don’t they look good ..read more

The measure of a successful boot maker is knowing when to quit, and by that metric I am a very successful boot maker. I have to leave early today so I wet these boots down at 11am and thought I’d get them both on the last before I left. Instead, it’s almost 1pm and only one boot is on the last. Ostrich is notorious for twisting when you last it but this was ridiculous. I really wasn’t sure I was going to win. The *proper* way to last a pair of boots is to last in the toe first, then the ball, then pull the heel down and last it, but every time I did that when I pulled the heel down the entire ..read more

This is the fitted last for the beige/jade ostrich boots. You can see how I trim and prepare the insole for inseaming later ..read more

Side seams are done and the pulls are stitched on. I guess I need to fit the last now and put an insole on it ..read more

I need to finish a couple of pairs of boots before I start this pair, but I wanted to get all the pattern pieces for these done first. Now if I need a break I can relax into cutting and skiving little pieces of leather, which is my idea of meditation ..read more

I create my pattern design templates by stitching the poster board with no thread in the needle. The holes will close if you don’t have an extra piece of poster board behind the pattern template as you’re sewing. The backing pieces can be reused multiple times and after a while they become their own sort of art (right before I throw them away, that is ..read more

All of the pieces for this pair of boots are completed ..read more