One thing I’ve learned is how good just one or two rows of stitching can look on a boot. Tex said I should look at old catalogue stitch patterns and those of other bootmakers for ideas. Not to copy them, but to see how they balance and fill the space on the boot. I always wondered why there were so many points and angles in stitch patterns, why not curves and swirls? Tex showed me that the stitch length changes as you swirl around and around. Most bootmkers prefer the uniformity you get with ending at a point.
I must be serious about boots. It’s Sunday, and I’m in the bootshop working on my second pair, while Kitty Wells is giving her last Texas appearance…at the Elks Lodge in Brownwood. I’m a little worried about time. This pair should go faster, but they’re fancier…foxing on the toe…a couple of butterflies inlayed. I know Tex won’t let me go home with a half finished pair of boots, but the more he has to jump in and speed me along the less experience I’m gettin’. It sure would have been handy to have had a previous career in shoe repair, so I would know how to work all these machines. Shoot!..forget the knives…what’s scary is takin’ an almost finished boot and walkin’ up to that belt sander. yikes.
This “weblog” thing really works…right now I’m in the Abilene Public Library. It’s swell, all the air conditioning, scratch paper and stumpy yellow pencils a gal could want. I went to visit James Leddy this morning…7am, what was I thinkin’?! He’s got a beautiful place…lots of boots to look at, and lots of good stories to go with ’em. He fessed up that today is his and his bride Paula’s 45th wedding anniversary. Once I found that out…I finished up my picture takin’ and scurried out of there, so they could get to celebrating. I found some breakfast down the road. My sweetie back home taught me to look at the parking lots…crowded is good. This one on the corner of Ambler Ave. and Clinton St. looked just like a used truck dealership…I had a plate of chorizo and eggs. (Yum.) Now, I’m gonna walk around downtown Abilene, maybe hit the Goodwill…then head back to Coleman. It’s supposed to be hot today.
