I finished the "Doll Shoe Projects: Felt Boots" book today, and it is currently in review at Amazon. The last time, it took about a day for my book to get accepted, so it will be available soon. The price is the same as for the first book, $2.99 (plus VAT, if applicable).
The "Doll Shoe Projects: Gladiator Sandals with Flat Soles" book will be available at a discounted price ($1.99) at Amazon.com for 7 days starting from January 18.
The second Doll Shoe Projects book will be about making boots. This is one project that did not make it in the book, because things didn't go as planned. The yellow felt used for the uppers was already salvaged from another unsuccessful project. Probably should have just scrapped the whole thing, but I didn't want to throw all that felt away.
The pieces for the boots are simple, just the uppers and soles, both made of felt. The grey felt is made of recycled textiles and is 3 mm thick, so it's very stiff.
The first step was to glue the uppers to the edges of the soles. I used PVA glue for this. It works well when gluing pieces of felt together.
When the glue was dry, I sewed the front seams. The boots could be used like this, but my plan was to make the outer soles using modeling clay.
Here you can see the paper pattern on the left and a pattern cut from plastic on the right. The reason I was using a plastic pattern was that it's easier to get the modeling clay off from plastic after shaping the sole by pressing the clay against the pattern.
The clay I used was air-drying modelling foam, but any modeling clay would work. Actually, polymer clay would have been a better choice for the reason explained later in this post.
Here are the soles, shaped using the plastic pattern. I made them slightly bigger than the pattern, because air-drying clay tends to shrink.
Not big enough, it turned out. As you can see, the sole doesn't cover the entire insole and some gray remains visible. With polymer clay, this wouldn't be an issue as they don't shrink, at least not noticeably. At this point, I again considered scrapping the entire project, but decided to go on anyway just to see if this could still be salvaged.
I decided to glue some of that yellow felt to the soles to cover the gray felt. You get exactly the right shape by gluing a bigger piece first and then cutting off the excess.
The final stage was to glue the foam soles in place. I'm not sure I like how the seams between the uppers and foam soles look like, but at least the gray soles are hidden now. I may end up covering the seams with ribbon, but for now, these are good enough.
I've done all but one of the projects I intend to include in the book. The structure of the book is all planned, almost all photos are ready, and I have plenty of notes in Scrivener for writing the actual text. I'm aiming at getting most of it done before the end of the year, because I'll be very busy in January due to starting my studies. We'll see how that goes. The first book remained unfinished for a very long time.
I'm also waiting for a snowfall, because I plan to shoot the cover photos outside and snowy landscape would be perfect for that.
I finally finished the book, and it is now available in Amazon. I was planning to make it -50% for the first few days, but it seems that I can't do that. The promotion page says it needs to be available for 30 days first. So, it's $3.29 or whatever that is in your currency. To check it in Amazon.com, click here.
Edit: It seems that the price is actually $2.99 like I set it when publishing the book, but I'm seeing $3.29 due to VAT being added to the price, so your price will be equivalent to $2.99 plus any applicable taxes.
This is the first book in a series of books of doll shoe projects. Each book will have a theme, like this one, and all the materials used for the projects are selected so that they will be as easy to find and as affordable as possible. The projects are described step by step, and everything you need to know is explained, so although some of the techniques are the same as in Techniques for Making Doll Shoes, you do not need that book for making these projects.
I've had this book unfinished for a long time. I started it after I wrote Techniques for Making Doll Shoes, but I had so much other stuff to do that I left most of the doll shoe projects for a long time. Now I finally got the last project to be included in the book finished, so I've got all the pictures I need. All text is also written, but it's going to need some editing. This is going to be a series, one type of shoes per book with 4-5 different variations, easy to find and cheap materials, and every step from start to finish explained in detail.
The most common complaint about the technique book was that people wanted instructions from start to finish, but it was a reference book. So, these smaller books will provide just that. Another complaint was that it was mainly about fashion doll shoes (high heels), so this one is for flat-footed dolls, but I'm sure I'll be also doing some high heel projects later.
The editing and publishing will take a few days, but this should be available next week at the latest. I'll probably also make it -50% for the first few days. I'll let you know when it's available by posting here and in Twitter.
on nyt saatavissa Amazonista. Linkki vie Amazon.comiin, mutta muiltakin Amazonin sivustoilta kirja löytyy ASIN-numerolla B00Y2MDBOO (ja tietysti kirjan ja tekijän nimellä). Kirjan hinta Suomeen on sama kuin englanninkieliselläkin eli 12,39 dollaria (9,99 USD + ALV).
. Sen avulla kirjoja voi lukea tietokoneella, taulutietokoneella, älypuhelimella yms.
. Linkki vie Amazon.comiin, koska Suomeen tilattavat Kindle-kirjat on ostettava sieltä, mutta kirja löytyy muiltakin Amazonin sivustoilta ASIN-numerolla B00X2SUC3W. Kirjan hinta Suomeen on 1,23 dollaria (0,99 USD + ALV).. Sen avulla kirjoja voi lukea tietokoneella, taulutietokoneella, älypuhelimella yms.
. It's a book for anybody who doesn't know anything about card weaving, but wants to make some bands for miniature projects.
. The link takes you to the Amazon.com web site. The links to the book on the other Amazon web sites are as follows:
