Lisa Sorrell
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customboots.bsky.social
Lisa Sorrell
@customboots.bsky.social
Cowboy boots -- maker, speaker, teacher, writer
LGBT -- ally
Evangelical -- used to be one, won't be back
I can't believe I get to make this pair of boots. They're a reproduction of a vintage pair that I have loved for years.
February 3, 2025 at 10:47 PM
I was a little slow putting these together because I kept pausing to admire the colors and the effect of the cognac alligator with the chocolate boot tops.
January 31, 2025 at 12:01 AM
These boot tops are making me happy.
January 27, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Sincere question: How many things could we destroy and how much good would it do if all of us requested new gender IDs and changed our name to something stereotypically the gender we’re not?
January 25, 2025 at 12:23 AM
This set of boot tops has been incredibly bossy about how they're going to be brought into the world.
January 24, 2025 at 10:36 PM
Completed set of inlaid and stitched boot tops, with pulls
The second photo shows what the inlay looks like from the back, before it's lined and stitched.
January 24, 2025 at 9:01 PM
I'm not sure I'm tough enough to maintain this level of rage for four years, but... deep breath... I'm willing to try. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger.

And if it kills me, just remember that I died mad.
January 22, 2025 at 1:47 AM
I've really been in the mood to cut, skive, and sew boot tops and shoe uppers recently. At some point I'm going to have to begin lasting everything and building boots! In the meantime, here's the next set of uppers on the work bench.
January 21, 2025 at 11:52 PM
For several years I've been trying to come up with an alternate name for evangelical christians. They're nothing like Christ so they don't deserve to be called Christ-followers, but what else should they be called?
It finally hit me this morning! From now on, let's just call them Church Nazis.
January 21, 2025 at 3:20 PM
I got these shoe/boots on the last today! I've been quietly terrified I'd forgotten how to last shoes, but they were so compliant. Maybe I'm also getting better at patterning.

While these will be made on a cowboy boot last, they are shoes and are patterned like shoes rather than cowboy boots.
January 15, 2025 at 8:42 PM
"When you get a job in a boot shop you are trained to do your job. No one's going to pay you to learn to be a boot maker."

Interview link with Mark Beador of Today's Wild West, and it opens with this curmudgeonly quote. Check it out for more sunshine, rainbows, and life in a boot shop!
The $10,000 Cowboy Boots Hand made by Lisa Sorrell
YouTube video by Today's Wild West
www.youtube.com
January 15, 2025 at 5:59 PM
I love it when my customers prove me wrong. When this client chose the colors, I thought it would be bland and I wished he'd chosen brighter colors. I was mistaken! I love how deep and rich and elegant these colors are together!
#lisasorrell #cowboyboots #leatherart #bespoke #itsabootlife
January 11, 2025 at 12:04 AM
If you look closely you'll see that there are four of the larger pieces stacked on top of each other; the design is cut completely by hand with an X-Acto knife. The top one is upside down because one is a mirror image of the other. Initial pulls are not reversed.
January 9, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Finally starting a real pair of cowboy boots
January 8, 2025 at 11:44 PM
It's not quite a Derby and not quite an Oxford. I prefer Oxfords but I hate the way the tongue lining is done and the closed, fixed lace gap. On the other hand, I don't like sewing the quarter over the vamp on a Derby. This design solves both those issues for me.
January 7, 2025 at 5:23 PM
All four bluebird top panels are stitched. Considering each panel took me around an hour, I'm pleased to have them finished. My usual goal when designing and stitching a boot top is to be able to start, stitch the entire boot top, and finish right back where I began without stopping.
December 20, 2024 at 12:10 AM
I have one (1) of the four (4) bluebird top panels stitched. This is going to take a while.
December 17, 2024 at 9:43 PM
Reposted by Lisa Sorrell
Hey corporate media,

Thou shalt not spend thousands of hours on one CEO’s shooting and only one hour on a classroom of children.
December 16, 2024 at 10:57 PM
My original plan was to introduce the color lavender in the shaft of the feather. Friday I flirted with making it purple instead but I hated it, so I took out all of the purple leather and replaced it with lavender. It looks so much better. I'll do all the stitching with lavender also.
December 17, 2024 at 12:31 AM
Today's work: shoe uppers and cowboy boot tops
December 13, 2024 at 10:47 PM
More little birdies and butterflies and flowers are stitched.
December 11, 2024 at 11:45 PM
I'm working on another small pair of shoes with teeny tiny birds and flowers. I'm ready to make shoes or boots for someone who's a size 12 now, please.
December 11, 2024 at 12:00 AM
December 10, 2024 at 3:25 AM
Reposted by Lisa Sorrell
🧵To advocate for #PRESSfreedom is to support democracy. No threat to a journalist or news outlet is too big or too small to be ignored. An attack on one IS an attack on all; and needs to be responded to in that way. Pulitzer winner Anna Wolfe / @mississippitoday.org
www.nbcnews.com/investigatio...
She exposed how the nation's poorest state spent federal welfare money. Now she might go to jail.
"The rabbit's got the gun now," said a lawyer for former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, who is trying to force reporter Anna Wolfe to reveal her sources.
www.nbcnews.com
December 10, 2024 at 2:45 AM
My reflection art piece, titled "On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand," has gone to a new home. He's promised to love it and take care of it and allow me to visit when necessary.

I need to make more art pieces. Maybe then I won't be so emotionally attached to each one.
December 9, 2024 at 9:45 PM