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

I’m going to share this photo of a pair of boots I made for my son and then I’ll be out of my shop for the rest of the week. A family friend in West Virginia has died and I promised my mother I’d take her to the funeral when the day came. This particular boot design is titled “Somewhere Between Right and Wrong” and I will admit that this pair skews very far towards wrong. If there was a mistake I could make, I made it. They do appear to be wearable and my son is forgiving, but goodness, I hope I do better the next time I try to pretend I’m a shoe maker ..read more

A traditional cowboy boot is a four piece construction: the front top panel, the back top panel, the foot (called the vamp), and the counter (sturdy, heavy leather heel, covered by the visible part called the counter cover). Boot tops, where the decorative work is, are called exactly that — boot tops, not shafts. And now that you know the terminology, I can announce that the boot tops for this pair are completed ..read more