Copying a real-life design

Some months ago, I saw an interesting design at a shoe store. I took a photo as I knew I'd want to try making these in doll size.

The first version is for Monster High dolls. I'm thinking of trying them for a bigger doll as well, because of the potential for better details.

I started by making the patterns. The pattern for the upper looks so strange that I actually had to write in it which way the sides are supposed to go. Next, I made the cardboard insoles.

Usually, I make the closing mechanism last, but this time, the shape of the upper made it really hard to get it to stay in the correct position for gluing, so I had to get it closed before gluing. It's a simple bead and hole mechanism again. That's easy to make and works really well with leather.

With that problem solved, I manage to glue the uppers in place (after gluing pieces of leather on top of the cardboard insoles).

Then I glued the straps to the uppers. The straps are from a card-woven band I used for another pair previously. I really wanted to have more straps, like in the shoes I photographed at the store, but the band was too wide for that.

Then I glued the straps under the insoles.

Because the materials used were quite thick, I decided to fill the gaps with leftover pieces to ensure that the outer soles would be even.

For the toe parts, I glued oversized pieces and trimmed them after the glue was dry.

Then I glued the outer soles in place.

I made the heels from round strips of wood, which I glued in place and painted brown. You can also paint first and glue afterwards, but when you glue the heels in place first, you can hold the entire shoe when painting, paint the entire heels at once, and it is easy to put them to dry so that the heels won't touch anything.

Here are the finished shoes on Clawdeen.