The first Doll Shoe Projects book

I finally finished the book, and it is now available in Amazon. I was planning to make it -50% for the first few days, but it seems that I can't do that. The promotion page says it needs to be available for 30 days first. So, it's $3.29 or whatever that is in your currency. To check it in Amazon.com, click here.

This is the first book in a series of books of doll shoe projects. Each book will have a theme, like this one, and all the materials used for the projects are selected so that they will be as easy to find and as affordable as possible. The projects are described step by step, and everything you need to know is explained, so although some of the techniques are the same as in Techniques for Making Doll Shoes, you do not need that book for making these projects.

Repainting a relief

 As I was cleaning my parents' house for sale a few years back, my aunt gave me this relief as she was going through her own belongings that were there. She said the lips were painted later and this was originally all black.

I decided to repaint this all black. The first step was to clean it. As I was going to paint it, I used acetone, so I could remove as much of the paint from the lips as possible. Acetone is harsh, but it also cleans the surface efficiently before painting.

Then I used matte acrylic paint and applied several coats of it. The result looked quite nice, but I knew it wouldn't stay that way, so I used sealer to make the surface easier to clean. The picture below shows the surface after painting, before the sealer.

I put the original choker back, but made new earrings, which I secured in place using hot glue.

Extending the waist band of cargo pants

I have a pair of cargo pants that didn't fit me anymore. The legs were fine, but hips and waist required extension. I've never done anything like this, but decided to try anyway as the pants were of no use to me as they were. So I opened the side seams down to the upper edges of the pockets that are on the sides just a little over the knees.

Then I cut wedge shaped pieces out of black 100% cotton. I bought the fabric specifically for this purpose. For some reason, the instructions that came with the fabric said it should be washed in 40 degrees (C). 100% cotton should be able to take 60 (the pants certainly can), so I washed the fabric first to make sure of that.

I pinned the wedges in place and tried the pants on to make sure everything was fine. I made the waist slightly too loose to take into account possible future weight gain. There are straps on the sides to make the waist tighter, so I'm using them now to get the waist to the correct size.

At this point my sewing machine stopped working, so I had to take it to be serviced, which took 10 days. I had to stop all of my current projects for that time as they all require the sewing machine. 

Sewing the seams was one of the most difficult projects I've done so far, but at least the sewing machine was freshly serviced and wasn't causing any trouble.

After sewing the wedges in place, I had to fix the inside of the waist band. When I opened the side seams, I had to cut the band that was going around the inside at the waist, and now it required extensions as well.

Here is an extension sewn in place. I have no idea how these things are supposed to be made, so I've just done everything in this project as I have seen fit. There are probably some unnecessary seams in places, but black thread on black fabric isn't too noticeable, so it doesn't matter.

As I had already seen so much trouble with these, I decided to also shorten the legs, which had always been a bit too long. It hadn't bothered me as I mostly used these in the forest and put the pants legs inside the rubber boots. Now I'll be using these during the winter in the city, so it's nicer to have them at proper length.

In the picture above, I'm wearing the pants with the side straps set as shown in the following picture. I can get the waist just the right size, but also adjust it in case of temporary bloating or some more permanent weight gain.

The final thing was sewing a button in place as there was one button missing. This kind of pants are great because there's no zipper to be replaced, but on the other hand, buttons have a tendency to fall more often than a zipper breaks.

More cases using card-woven bands

The older mobile phone case differs slightly from the other cases I have made using card-woven bands. I didn't use a zipper and left one end of the bands uncovered. The picture below shows the case front closed & front open, and the back of the case. I made the bands from leftover yarn, so I had to combine several different colors. It works great when you divide them into dark and light colors and then make the band the same way as you'd make a two-colored one.

The mobile phone case is made of 100% cotton yarn. I have also experimented with combining that and a wool/polyester blend (the dark read yarn in the picture below). That experiment ended up to be a case for PlayStation Vita. It's similar to the Kindle case, except there's a little less padding in this one.

Follow me on Twitter

If you want to get a notification when I update the blog, follow me on Twitter. I will post updates on new blog posts, some other stuff about my projects, and occasionally some Nintendo Switch screenshots.

Apron (because pockets!)

 I've been using skirts more than usual as I'm home all the time, except for grocery shopping. The biggest problem with skirts is no pockets. I'm making a dress/housecoat with big pockets, so I decided to use the same pocket pattern for making an apron with huge pockets.

It's just a rectangular piece of fabric with gathered upper edge and a waistband and pockets made of different fabric. 

I'm also starting again to post in the Fashion Doll Shoes blog, starting with some projects done between 2015 and now. I have posted some of these to Instagram, but it's nice to have one post per project, collecting all stages together.

Mobile phone case

I made a mobile phone case out of card-woven bands for my previous phone, but my current phone is bigger, so I needed a new one. This is a variation of the Kindle case I made earlier.

I sewed two lengths of band together and pressed the piece flat (see the earlier post). Then I added pieces of fabric to the ends to make them neat. First you sew the fabric and band to each other right sides together. Then you cut off any extra fabric and turn the fabric around the edges and sew it in place. In total there will be two seams in each end.

In this case, I added loops to the back as this is meant for hanging from a belt. I used sewing machine for sewing all the fabrics in place as it's easier and faster. The only hand sewn seams are the middle seam and edges.

Before sewing the edges together (see the earlier post), I sewed the button in place and made a loop for closing the case. It's easier to do that first and only sew the side seams when everything else is done.

This was much faster to make than the Kindle case as I left out all the padding. The case is made of just the bands and the green fabric. I intend to put the phone in with the screen towards me, so there isn't much risk of it breaking inside the case. The previous case worked for that phone fine this way, so I'm expecting this to be fine as well.