Friday, August 27, 2010

Black and white sandals for Barbie

I haven't made shoes for Barbie (except for California Girl Barbie), because her feet are so small, but I decided to try and see how hard it really is. I eliminated some steps from the process of making larger shoes, so these shoes don't have leather insoles, just three layers of cardboard glued in shape. The ribbon I used was the narrowest one from a set that had four different kinds of black and white ribbons.


I was making the shoes using the plaster castings for Silkstone Barbie feet, so I decided to add ankle straps. That way, the shoes can be used on other Barbies as well. The ring between the two pieces of strap is actually thin rubber band. On one piece of ribbon, I made a loop where the rubber band can move freely. On the other piece, the ends of the rubber band are glued in place and the end of the ribbon glued on top of them (so it is like another loop, only glued shut). I used rubber band so the strap would stretch a bit, if necessary, when putting the shoes on the doll's feet.


Here you can see all the straps glued in place. You can make the ankle strap a tight fit, but do not stretch the rubber band when gluing the straps in place.


The heels are tiny bits of balsa wood covered with leather.


Here are the finished shoes. The outer soles are made of the same leather I used for the heels.


I was surprised to find out that these were not as difficult to make as I had imagined. Leaving the separate insole out helped keeping the edges neat and it occurred to me later that using different colored cardboards for the different layers of the soles could be a good idea.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very clever design! I love the tiny rubber band idea! It sure does look nice a neat for such a tiny shoe! Excellent work and thanks for your insights!

DLSarmywife said...

These Rock!!!! I am working on trying to make some Barbie shoes too. My attempts have not quite come out as well as yours, BUT I'm gonna keep trying cause these aer gorgeous!!!

meira said...

i'd like to request permission to pin this to my doll cloths pinterest board. would that be ok? I don't like to pin things unless I know the blogger doesn't mind.
I want to pin it to http://pinterest.com/birkatchaverim/doll-clothing/

thanks,
meira

Tarja said...

Meira, it's ok, you can pin it there.

Unknown said...

i've been look all night for doll clothing patterns for my Lammily doll and i didn't even think about shoes until i saw your page. is there anyway i could request for you to do some cute shoes for the Lammily Doll? these shoes are great and i would love some for her!

Tarja said...

Sorry, I don't do commissions, and I wouldn't have the time anyway.

Erin Q said...

Where did you find such small rubber bands?

Tarja said...

Erin, sorry about answering so late to this. The rubber band is actually more like thread, the kind you can use in a sewing machine.