Heed the Warning!

I love this - and it is so true too!

I have been making doll shoes all week.  I have shoes all over my work room in various stages of completion.

My biggest shoe problem has always been Chatty Cathy.  She has horribly big feet for a doll her size, and shoes for her are very rare.  I have seen some on eBay - real Chatty shoes - but I refuse to pay as much for shoes as I would for the doll herself.  So I have been making my own.  I tried sewing them - but that is way too fiddly.  So next I tried crocheting them... that worked better - but they always looked like slippers... cute slippers.  I even tried making some from plastic canvas covered with material - well those weren't terrible, but they weren't all that great either.

So back to crocheting went I.

I found a baby shoe pattern (Mary Jane style) that when crocheted with a fingering weight cotton, and a size 3 steel almost fit Cathy's foot.  But they still looked like a slipper to me.

Then I had a thought - what if I used some Stiffy and turned them into a real solid shoe?  So I wrapped the dolls feet in clear wrap, dipped my finished shoe and used her foot as a mold...

Bingo!

A perfectly fitted shoe!  They turned out great, until I tried to put socks on the foot along with shoes.  No go!  So back to the hook make the shoe just a wee bit larger - put socks on the dolls feet, wrap in clear wrap and dip and mold and...

Viola - a perfectly fitted shoe - finally!

So now all my shoe-less dolls ( and I have a few) will get shoes custom made to go with their outfits.

Next I want to try some sneakers...

Oh I do love this doll business... it's just so fun!


On a completely different subject.  This will be my last post for a week or so.  I am off on vacation as of tomorrow, and I have promised myself some down time from the computer.  I hope to have some new thoughts, some great projects and ideas and some new fresh images to share with you when I get back.

In the meantime, I wish each and everyone of my readers a  Blessed Easter. 

Stay safe, and I'll see you back here on April 8th...