Decorating a Pair of Shoes

Today I will show you how to make a pair of cute decorated tennis shoes! Mine are themed for Valentine's Day, but could be for whatever you want.

 

You will need:

 

A pair of white tennis shoes for your doll

Sharpies in red, pink, or both

 

This pair of shoes I got from Hobby Lobby. They fit AG dolls perfectly and are a reasonable price for craft projects.

 

 

First, take out the laces.

 

I grabbed a few Sharpies I thought I might use, and tested their colors on a piece of paper. I ended up using the red, and the pink to the right of the right.

 

For the tongue of each shoe, I drew a Chevron pattern in pink.

 

On the sides, I drew a curly design with a couple tiny hearts in red.

 

 

I also colored the tips of the laces red.

 

Also, I colored the band around the sole of the shoe pink, and the top of the shoe red.

 

Hope you enjoyed!

Review of Glitter Slip-Ons

I featured these shoes in the What My Dolls are Wearing Today post a while back, and I thought I would do a review on them!

These cute glitter slip-ons are from AmericanFashionWorld on Amazon.  They also come in many other colors including light pink, light purple, dark purple, silver, gold and more.  The inside says AFW.  My dolls stand well in them.

Although these shoes are called "Teal Glitter Slip-Ons", they are more of a turquoise color (which can be easily seen in the stock photos).  The glitter on the shoes is not glitter the consistency of sand or the like, but more of a tiny flat hexagon.  Around the toe seams it appears to be that a few pieces of glitter have come off leaving white spots.  I think this has happened over time, as I have had these shoes about 4 or 5 months.

The shoes have a thick white foam sole.  I would prefer the soles to be a little less thick, but that's ok.

They also have elastic for easy on and off.

In addition to looking super cute, the slip-ons fit very well!  They are close fitting but not too tight.

I really like these shoes and would recommend them.  I may eventually get another pair in a different color!

Gladiator Sandals (and Photoshoot!)

Recently, Pixie Faire Freebie Friday pattern was the Gladiator Sandals.  I downloaded the pattern to save until I wanted to use it.  I was looking at this photoshoot on American Girl Place, and I noticed the doll was wearing super cute shoes!  Suddenly I thought "I have a pattern for shoes almost just like those!" and quickly printed the pattern.

And so I made these black sandals!  I made them black because I wanted them to be versatile, and my dolls don't have any all black casual shoes.  They were fairly easy to make (cutting out the pieces to longer than assembling them).

Although the pattern calls for two straps to go through each slit on the center piece, the 2mm craft foam I used was too thick for more than one strap. 

The only problem is the strap around the ankle is a little short and I have to stretch the craft foam.  I eliminated this problem by making the Velcro strips shorter and making the ankle strap a teeny bit longer on my next pair!  Shortly after finishing the black pair, I made one in royal blue.  This time I made the slight adjustments that I realized needed to be made the first go around.  They turned out great except the heel piece on the left shoe is a little odd.  I think it's because I used a different sole pattern that had a slightly larger heel, but that's okay. 

My dolls will definitely be wearing these shoes a lot the rest of the summer, and I am eager to make them in even more colors!

Here is the rest of the photoshoot :)