Booties for Jessica Rabbit

I started these over a year ago and managed to finish the cork soles, but then abandoned the project for something else. As I was going through some shoe pictures in fashion magazines, I got inspiration to finish these.

The soles consist of four parts each, the bottom and three vertical parts that form the wedge heel. When cutting the vertical parts, it's best to get the arch correct right from the start. Everything else is easy to carve into the right shape afterwards.

Here the heels are glued in place, but not yet carved into correct shape. Also, the bottom parts are a bit too long, but they were left that way on purpose, so it would be easy to get seamless fit with the wedges.

Here are the finished soles. As there won't be anything to cover the cork surface, it is important to get the seams as invisible as possible.

As I continued the project today, I first made the leather insoles. There was no need to use cardboard as the uppers were not going to go under the insoles.

I glued the edges of the uppers to the cork. Basically, you could finish the process here and use the shoes like this. However, I wanted something a bit different this time.

These are the parts that go around the ankles. I used 2 mm eylets and glued pieces of leather to the inside to protect the doll's feet from scratches.

Here are the ankle parts glued in place.

Then I hammered tiny nails to the edges of uppers. These are not necessary, because glue keeps the uppers in place, but I added them for decoration. You need to be careful to get the nails straight or they will come out through the insole or bottom of the cork sole. The shorter the nails are, the better.

Next, I glued pieces of leather to the bottom of the soles and made laces using cotton yarn. The beads in the ends of the laces are for decoration and also to keep the ends hanging down (that looks so much neater).

Repainted Clawdeen Wolf's boots

I bought another Clawdeen Wolf doll similar to the one I already had, so I decided to paint her shoes as I don't need two identical pairs.

First I painted all the outside surfaces white and the soles brown.


Here are the paints I used for the boots. The only one missing is "EU 658 Antique Gold," which I used for the buckles.


At this point, there were several layers of white underneath and several layers of Turner's Yellow on the straps.


I prefer not to paint parts that touch the doll's feet, but I had to paint part of the insole as it will remain visible. The sealer should prevent any staining or rubbing off of the paint.


Here are the finished boots (covered with sealer) in Clawdeen's feet. The originals are also shown for comparison.

New pattern

The pattern for the Monster High boots in the previous post is now available on my web site.

Stretchy boots for Monster High dolls

Monster High dolls' legs are so thin that boots with zippers or laces would be hard to make, so I decided to try stretchy fabric instead.

After cutting the pieces, I sewed the back seam and made the soles (two layers of cardboard plus leather insole).


Then I put the uppers on the doll's feet, put the soles in place, and trimmed, turned and glued the uppers under the soles.


As you can see in the previous photo, there was a lot of extra fabric, but when you trim it properly, the result is neat.


I made the heels out of wood. I had some round strips of wood and decided to see how that would work. I sawed the upper parts of the heels in 45 degree angle using a mitre box. Then I measured the height of the heels and sawed them off of the strip.


Next, I used a craft knife to make the front of the heel straight.


Then I covered the heels with the same fabric I used for the uppers.


Finally, I glued pieces of leather to the bottom of the heels, glued the heels in place, and glued pieces of leather as outer soles.

Here are the finished boots on Draculaura:

Platform shoes for a Monster High doll

I had several pairs of the plaster casting soles, so I decided to make another pair of platforms. These are basically similar to the orange silk shoes I made earlier, only the ankle strap is different.

I glued the front parts of the insoles (from toes to about middle of the arch) in place before gluing the straps in place. If the strap construction is anything more complicated, it is better to do it first, but in this case only the end of the vertical strap needed to be glued under the insole.


Here is a closeup of the strap construction.


And here are the finished shoes.

New shoes for Catwalk Kitty Jet

I tried to find a photo of how these looked originally, but couldn't find any. I guess I didn't take it, although I remember that I intended to. I started painting these a long time ago, but only now got them finished.


Catwalk Kitties have similar foot mechanism as Bratz dolls, so it is easy to replace their original feet. I have mostly used ankle boots on them, but wanted to try this too.

I first painted everything with black acrylic paint. You can't use solvent-based paints directly on vinyl dolls as the paint won't dry. However, with a couple of coats of acrylic paint first, it was possible to use Humbrol paints for the shoes.

I finished the black parts with satin sealer, which gives a surface that is close enough match to the doll's legs.

Here is the doll in her new shoes:

Monster High shoes with plaster casting soles

It has been some time since I last made any doll shoes. This pair has remained unfinished since March, but I finally decided to finish it.

The soles are plaster castings made with latex moulds. I glued fabric on the sides of the soles and on top of the inner soles made of cardboard.

After gluing the straps in place, I glued the inner soles to the plaster castings and glued in place the outer soles made of leather.