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Welcome to the world of modders, Kolombe! Very nice job.

Just takes practice. Maybe just set it aside for a while and come back to it. I know sometimes with painting and drawing everything I do turns out crappy, then I leave it alone for a little while and come back to it after I've gotten over my temporary case of suckitis.

Does anyone know how to make shoes that have a rounded toe? I can make shoes, but I don't know how to stretch/work pleather to make the toe round without making it from two pieces. I don't really want to move to actual leath, both because it's more expensive and I hate sewing it -- even the thin stuff -- and I have lots of pleather. Is there some kind of steaming trick or something, or should I score the fabric backing of it, or what? I can't find and MNF-sized shoes for Elizabeth in just a basic brown flat ankle boot, so I'm resorting to making them. Probably time I started making my own shoes, anyway.

 

You use a sawtooth cut along the edge to make the folded under pleather all fit without overlapping...

http://fashiondollshoes.blogspot.com/

Check out the Miss Piggy Platforms for a good shot.

And this one:

http://fashiondollshoes.blogspot.com/2010/11/leather-shoes-with-buckles-for-baha-cat.html

 

I get the saw-tooth folding.... maybe I should have been more specific. I meant a shoe with a raised rounded toe, like a combat boot, rather an one that is flat and just curves downward like a slipper.

 

You have to make a 'last' for that, and possibly a cardboard toecap to help it keep its shape.

Make a casting/model of your girl's feet. Now put some paperclay/polymer clay on them to make the shape of the toebox and heel shape you want - in other words the silhouette of the inside of the shoe without the sole on it. Since you're dealing with pleather, you're going to have to get creative about shaping it. Unless it's thin it just doesn't want to stretch over a toebox. You might look at some other pleather doll boots to see how they handled the pattern pieces on that.

Anyway, once you have your pair of lasts you make your cardstock/chipboard toe caps. heel reinforcement and innersoles. These can be a combo of clipping and wet shaping the cardstock - you can use stuff like cereal boxes. Shape them to general form you want and bind them up to dry. Once they're dry, trim them to neaten the edges and make them match each other. Do whatever stitching, hole punching and eyeleting you have to do on the sides and leg of the boots, then apply contact cement to the heel reinforcement and the same area of the boot back. Let the contact cement dry per the instructions. Align the pieces carefully and stretch the pleather around the last, securing it to the heel reinforcement. Secure the bottom tabs underneath to the innersole by each of the sawtooth areas.

Cut your toecap pleather out and 'dry fit' it one more time to make sure it's gonna fit properly. Once you do that, put contact cement on both the cardstock and the pleather where it will overlap the cardstock (mark it with a pen to make sure).

With the cardstock toecap secured to the last (eye putty would do it) CAREFULLY align the pleather at the top center of the toecap. Press with your thumb while holding the rest up out of the way...if it touches the wrong spot it is VERY difficult to unstick things. Pulling straight out and then down with the 'other' hand, bring the pleather about 1/2 way over the toecap. Going to about 45 degrees to one side, pull and place, switch to the other side, pull and place. Carefully ease the pleather onto the cardstock toecap and then secure it underneath to the innersole by each of the sawtooth areas. Cut and apply the soles.

 

Thanks, dhawktx, that's really helpful. I was afraid it was going to come down to making a mold...

I had tried stretching the pleather the way I normally would with real leather (heat, a little oil, and a fat rounded brush handle to work the leather over) but the pleather wouldn't stay stretched on its own. I thought about making a toe cap with felt and shaping it over that, but I do have cereal boxes! Can the toecap be sewn after the cement dries to attatch it to the side pieces, or will it be too tough? Did okay with the heal and the rest of the shoe shape, it's just those darned toes!

I got a pair of these shoes from DollHearts for my SD girl, and I love them. I might have to make some for my MSDs since they don't carry them in a smaller size. No toes on these boots!

 

Just as a funny note, when I Googled "shape pleather" three of the top four results were for pleather pasties... Not quite the information I was looking for.

 

Wow, pretty amazing info there dhawktx, this is exactly the reason I wanted to join this community... there are so many people with so much knowledge and experience in one place that are willing to share. When I Google stuff, I end up with results like Cymorill there... pleather pasties... LOL!

 

lol....gotta love pasties

 

Cymorill: Hmmm... If they are attached you probably want to sew it to the sides first. If it's not stretching then it's likely too thick and will eventually pull loose from the sole. It will also crush the toebox if you stretch it around and it and then it springs back. If you make the Toebox of felt or ultrasuede, you can also cover the back of the heel with it sort of like an Oxford look...

erellor: Word up...do NOT search for Honey Buns while drinking anything. Trust me.

 

Over the years I've found a major downfall of "craftiness" that people who don't delve into making their own things can't really understand: When you're someone who likes to try new projects and learn new skills, you discover a vast array of things you never knew you could suck at.

Cobbling is one of those things.

As such, making a mold and building a toe was a total disaster. The mold ended up being larger than I wanted by the time it was wrapped and clayed and baked, and with the toe the shoe would have been the same size as my Kid Delf boy's boots -- way too big. Thought I'd use it to practice on anyway. I did manage to make a big mess with wet cardboard, though, including spilling the water and having the cat run off with a piece I was working with. Finally threw the whole thing on the floor, shook my fist at it, then cried in the corner for a little while.

After I decided to put on my big girl panties, I went back to the back part of the shoe I was working on. In the end, I wimped out and cut out a round toe, but took a slit out of the tip and stitched it to (sort of) round it out. Lame, I know, but it was getting late and no scrap of fake leather is gonna out-smart me!

So the toe shape is sub-par but passable, I hate the sole and may or may not replace it, but everything else about it turned out okay. The shoe is a good fit and slides easily on and off her foot and is soft enough to give a little play in the ankle joint. Realistically I shouldn't expect something to turn out perfect the first time, but I know I'll be too lazy to try it again later. Soooooo....... Here is the one shoe I made, some 6 hours later:

Not great, but not total crap either. I'll probably make her a matching one and call it done. I'm already over it.

 

Ah, Cymorill! I must admit I laughed in recognition of myself there, right down to the fur people's interference (right now there's a cat butt in my face). I've done SO many different crafts, with differing levels of "well, that was easy" to "expletive deleted what the HELL was I thinking" and everything in between. I have a box somewhere of what I call my 'magnificent failures'. Think Big, Fail Big!

That shoe certainly looks 'good enough' to me, but I'd recommend investing in some lightweight leather or lightER weight pleather.

 

My Migidoll Cho is at my neighborhood post office but I'm at my sisters house watching my niece and nephew until Friday night. I have the super I can't wait energy surges making me crazy.

 

I think the finished product looks great and far better than anything I might accomplish in the cobbling line!

I think we probably all found ourselves in Cymoril's story. Why is it that we don't just throw away those epic failure items? I mean, if it didn't work, it didn't work...but I have a whole pile of them kicking around waiting for me to find inspiration to fix them...

Yikes, more waiting! A nice reward waiting after your babysitting is over though...congrats on your almost arrival.

I'm waiting on my FL neck piece which was shipped from Texas on the 10th and has not seen a tracking point since...Dru would really like her head attached soon!

 

Maybe I'll stop by Tandy Leather and see what they have. Ours is kind of small, and they mostly sell whole hides and don't have much in the way of scraps or small pieces. Need some doeskin or kidskin, I guess. I do have leather, but it's all too thick and really hard to sew.

But for now it's off to work! Bleh.....

 

If my technique for shoe making works then I'll post a how-I-did it thingy but I haven't had a chance to try it yet (but similar to what dhawktx said).

Okay - here's Aaron and Serena's craptastic faceups (well his is okay-ish, thankfully the little tiny hairs don't show up and her's ... well hers just sucks big time, although I do kinda like how her lips came out ... I may have to send her to a real faceup artist):


Does anyone else think I should maybe go up an eye size for Serena? she looks a little eternally shocked to me and I don't think its her brows too high (I followed the brow 'bone').

I didn't get a chance to take pics of the micro-micro macrame necklaces I made as I can't find my clear nail varnish to seal the knots ... sod's law - I know I have some - I'll have to get some tomorrow, finish them off and take some nice pics - but they came out great

 

I'm not clear on which doll is which. Face-up on the left I really like everything but the brown at the eye fold, maybe a bit lighter?

I like the eye sizes, personal taste thing of course.

I can't wait to see your micro macrame! It is always great when you give something a try and it works out well!

 

Aaron <- that side and Serena -> this side (Aaron DZ Aaron and Serena Luts LE USC KDF Lolly)
They'll just have to do for now - I'm so sick of repainting them (well not so much the repainting but all the work of getting it off first more than anything else) ... plus I couldn't get those eye crease lines any thinner even with a 0000 brush ... so frustrating since I can do it any other time but I tried and wiped each one (plus on Ralphy too but gave up and wiped them off) 50+ times ... I'm wondering if there are any ultra fine tipped pens that might work instead (like copics or something) but it depends on what can and can't be used on resin.

Managed to find some clear nail varnish so here's a pic of my micro-micro macrame necklace:


Think the scale came out perfectly

 

FR: sometimes the length of the brush hairs is more important than how few there are! The hairs are needed to carry paint, but have to be long enough to allow sufficient feathering. Also, if you're not thinning the paint to the right consistency, it's not going to feather out properly. Get an airbrush acrylic medium to thin the paint with so you don't have it bead up like paint thinned with water can do.

 

what kind of stuff is ok to use on resin, like is there any types of ink? like copics are alcohol based dye ink - I would have thought alcohol based is ok but the 'dye' part puts me off trying them (guess I could try in a headcap or something) ... I'm thinking part of my problem might lie in the way I draw/paint my fine lines as 90% of the time I do them on a flat surface and (very hard to explain in words lol) I use the side of my hand and pinky finger to stabilise and guide the line, sort of them leading the brush/pencil/pen kind of thing as my hands can sometimes shake a bit (medical crap), and I'm thinking maybe I'm having such a hard time because they're 3D forms and I don't have anywhere to put my hand/pinky finger to lead so I'm trying to 'paint' (brush strokes kind of thing maybe?) them instead in a manner I'm not used to ... that probably didn't make a blind bit of sense lol
I wonder if I can fill an old empty copic with thinned paint and put an ultra fine nib on ...? might be worth a try ... wish I could still ask in newbieland - could find out if anyone else has tried it without having to *attempt* to search the forum lol

At least the micro-micro macrame is working

 

FR: *gets her Sister Mary Margaret ruler* Get thee to the Customization and Maintenance forum woman! That is not the sort of thing you can just 'wing' without knowing what will and will not damage your doll! Stick with acrylics, dry pastels (not oil), and watercolor pencils and you're fairly safe

http://www.denofangels.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?15-Customization-amp-Maintenance

Also, there's a TON of good faceup videos on Youtube

https://www.google.com/search?q=youtube+bjd+faceup+pastel+watercolor+pencil