Saturday, January 8, 2011

How to make doll shoes for your doll

http://dolldiaries.com is  a website that my doll shoe directions were originally published I thought I would share with you. I highly recommend this site as they have fantastic news, crafts and give aways. Here is a cut and past copy of my directions from the site.
What you will need to make to make your doll a pair (or several pairs of shoes)
  • 1 felt board (can be purchased at Michaels or other craft stores for about $1.29)
  • Ribbons (I used ribbons I had left from Christmas and ribbon I bought at Michaels in the $1.29 bin)
  • Glue  (I used a hot glue gun, if you are doing this as a party activity I recommend that you use craft glue or have a lot of adult supervision with the hot glue)
  • paper (to trace your dolls foot or existing shoe)
  • pencil
  • scissors
  • *optional small buttons, beads or accessories to decorate the shoes
How to make doll shoes to fit American Girl dolls
Step one – Trace your doll’s existing shoes or trace your doll’s feet on to a piece of paper.
Step two – cut out the tracing, this is your pattern for all the shoes you will ever need to make.

Step three
- place the pattern on to your chosen color of felt board, trace two for each shoe and cut out.
Step four – cut 2 – 3.5 inch strips of ribbon, (I used ¾ inch wide ribbon)

Step five
– using glue (I used hot glue as it is faster but white craft glue will also work) attach the ribbon approximately ½ inch from the toe, to the bottom side of the top part of the Shoe top. Then pull over the top and place shoe on dolls foot to measure tightness and angle of the ribbon, then attach with glue to the spot desired.
Step 6 – Once you have the ribbon in the spot you would like, apply glue all over the bottom and use the second felt piece to sandwich the ribbon. Hold and press down so that the felt pieces stick tight together.
Step 7 – make sure the shoe fits your doll and then if you wish to add more decoration then glue to the ribbon at this time.
Step 8 - repeat step 1-7 for the other shoe.
NOTES:
  • For the sandals with two straps cut two pieces of ribbon for each shoe.
  • The felt board will be enough to make about 12 pairs of shoes. With all the colors available the possibilities are endless. Fun and easy to make!
This is such fun craft idea and would be perfect for Girl Scout meetings, birthday parties, slumber parties or rainy day fun.

8 comments:

  1. This is a great idea! I'm planning to make little accessories for this crochet stuffed animal I made and I think I will try this out to see if I can successfully make shoes for him!

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  2. Thank you! I hope it works for you!

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  3. This is homekeepingheather from swapbot for the blog comments swap. I am now following your blog and look forward to seeing more of your projects.

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  4. Wow, how busy you are! And such lovely crafts and recipes:) I love the doll shoes- I don't have American Girl dolls but will definitly use the pattern/idea to make shoes for my art dolls.
    Stopping in from swapbot, via the Blog comment swap.

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  5. i made these-great turnout! my first doll,kit,loves these. i always sit down with one of my dolls and have them help me neociate which craft to do!

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  6. That's wonderful I am so happy you shared this with me!

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  7. I've never heard of felt board. What part of Michael's do you find this in? How is it packaged, and what sizes does it come in? I would love to try this! I have seen sheets of felt that are flexible. But have never seen felt "board". How stiff is it?

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  8. I got mine a Michaels it is a stiffer felt, you can also use fun foam.

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