Today I am bending cardboard to the feet of lady dolls. Why?
Because the white plastic generic shoes from doll catalogs looked fine when
they arrived, but within months they had fallen into brittle pieces. I saved
the pieces for many years. Who knows, glue and fabric and elastic may revive
them. I have many shoeless dolls, probably because the darned plastic shoes
break after 60 years. I cringe when I think of having thrown away broken doll
shoes as a child. These days I regard a broken shoe as an opportunity to use
the sole as a base for adding elastic and felt.
Paper, cardboard, white glue, a toothpick, and elastic are
my main supplies. They are available everywhere, don't have noxious odors, and
bond together in a manner similar to papier mache'. For good measure, after I
get the shoe to the proper shape, I cover it with Mod Podge to waterseal it. Little
Miss Revlon and friends are patient models. All they ask is that I moisturize
the feet with hair conditioner and scrub well when I finally stop playing with
paper and glue.
The elastic that comes in 1/4 and 1/8th inch widths will
probably give you a look closest to what the lady dolls of the 1950s wore, but
I've only found it in black and white. Because the fiber is polyester, the best
you will get by dyeing is a pastel. The stuff currently sold as foldable
elastic cord, ostensibly for making your own bras and panties, is very lightweight and almost perfect when
used as a single layer for dolls. It comes many colors and patterns and I lurve
it madly right now.
I outline the doll's foot and try to mark the outline just
where her foot bends. After cutting 3 or 4 of each sole, reversing the template, I bend the cardboard. A layer of
white glue goes between the first two layers, which are shaped to the doll's
arch with elastic bands or oodles of thread. It doesn't matter so much how you
do it, as long as the damp cardboard is
trained into an arch that matches the doll's arch. When you have 3 or 4 layers,
even out the sides with scissors and then file them.
When you know for certain what color your shoe will be, you
can paint the entire shoe, including the sides. If you have a light hand, spray
paint works. Craft paint and nail polish work very well. Nail polish increases the strength of the shoe.
Decide whether your shoe liner will be paper or felt. Avoid
black because the dye may transfer. A nice pink scrapbook paper is sturdy
enough to hide where the elastic joins. Wrap the elastic around the doll's foot and mark where it
overlaps. I've sewn the loops together, and glued them, and don't see that it
makes much difference. I use hot glue for this stage because it cures quickly. Stick
the wrap to the sole or to the bottom of
the shoe liner. Let dry. Add the shoe liner after you have decided on the heel
placement.
For the heel, I make a
rolled paper bead around a toothpick. Mark a point about 1/4 inch from
the heel edge. At this point I wiggle the point of a seam ripper until there is
a small hole through which a straight pin can go. The point of the pin will
hold the paper bead. Look carefully at the shoe from the side. Is the heel
right for you? Do you need a shorter or taller heel? Will a cut off golf tee
do? When you've made your heel decision, paint or color the bead and glue it to
the shoe base with either white glue or hot glue -- depending on how neat you
are.
I carefully measure
the height of real LMR heels, cut a paper strip that wide by 5 inches long, and wind it in a paper bead roller from a
kit by Creativity for Kids. I paid about $5 for this, whereas bead rollers from
eBay can be pricey. Toothpicks work just as well if you don't mind getting glue
all over your hands.You can cut the heel at a slant. Good luck
with this. I do better with a single layer of cardboard at the back of the
heel. After the heel is glued to the sole, I check to make sure the doll can
stand. Sometimes my measuring is off, sometimes the doll's legs no longer are
even.
You can use almost anything for the heels: bits of wood
carved to the correct height, beads glued together. You can make a wedge shape
from Sculpey, bake it and use it as a shoe base. You can make an entire shoe
base from Sculpey, if you can stand the way the stuff feels. I can't. It is tempting to glue the heels to the sole
early in the process. Don't. Attach it with a straight pin until you are certain about heel position.
Sometimes you need to fill in between the shoe top edges. Toilet paper is good
for this. You can cut and carve bits of
dowel to use as heels. For larger dolls, a cut down golf tee is an acceptable
heel. You can make a mold from another shoe and fill it with hot glue. When it
is cool, pop it out of your mold and glue it on the shoe base. Or make the
entire base and heel from hot glue.
I've done most of my shoemaking in Little Miss Revlon size
because I always liked her best. Other ladies in sizes 17 inch through 25
inch have wandered through my life. Admit to yourself that this is a craft project at which you
will improve. It's fiddly work. Sometimes by sheer luck you create something
wonderful on the first try. Sometimes you rip off the top multiple times. And sometimes the shoes wait until you want to photograph them to fall apart in your hands. I had a lovely purple pair with heels made of stacked purple beads, attached with hot glue. And then I had two pieces of cardboard and felt, and a hand full of beads.
