Shoes, Clothes and Cake

Seems like a strange mix, and well honestly it is! LOL  On one hand I wish I could choose to either sew OR sculpt, but I enjoy both crafts so much I know I couldn't give either up for very long!  I've tried, but I always end up wanting to do whatever I stopped.  BUT if I could focus on one thing, maybe I'd get a few more things finished in a more timely matter. *shrugs* oh well, I'll just continue to enjoy doing what I do! :-)

So over the last week I've been working pretty hard on; as the title suggests, Shoes, Clothes and Cake! Among a few other various bits too, but I'll save those for another post. I have been collecting Monster High shoes for the last few months, whenever I find them at a good price. I tried in the past to create my own shoes, but at this stage it's beyond the scope of my knowledge to create shoes that both look good, and can be produced quickly and in a cost efficient manner. So I switched tactics and turned to repainting the ones produced by Mattel. Now THIS I find fun and relatively easy to do, and folks seem to really like them, since I've sold every pair I've listed so far! =D

I finally finished the 5 pairs that I've had in a state of flux for about a month now, and got them photographed AND listed last night! Starting projects is never hard for me, but gosh finishing them (all the way to listing) is a struggle I face.  If I could get someone to do all the picture taking and listing I'd be thrilled! LOL

But onto the shoes, the top 2 pair started out being plain single colored translucent sandals from the Skull Shores line.  The top pair was pale purple and got a coat of a great shimmery pink pearl.  The next pair is a favorite of mine!  This pair started out life as a single translucent pink with a molded heart design front and center.  I repainted the base of the sandals silver, and painted the roping glossy black.  I carved the heart design off the front and glued on a Jet Swarovski cyrstal.

Next up is this fun pair.  These started out life as a pair of yellow rose heels from the Stardoll by Mattel line. These dolls were launched about a year or so ago with much fanfare as a tie-in to the online game of the same name...Sadly most Barbie collectors were very disappointed in them, as though their faces and clothing matched Barbie, they had lost ALL the articulation that was gained with the Fashionista line...even the knees didn't bend like the old Barbies.  While gorgeous, these girls are merely static displays like 3-D paper dolls.  Add to that their oversized feet and well it's not too surprising to find them being clearanced out of stores.  BUT what Monster High fans quickly realized was that the feet of the Stardoll almost matches the MH girls!  Hooray for new shoe options! =D

Eeek....sorry for the 'history' of the Stardolls! lol  I repainted the yellow rose on these a lovely icy shimmery blue and carved off the molded rhinestone they originally had and glued in a coordinating metallic blue rhinestone!

Back to MH shoes for these next 2 pairs.  Both pair started off as the same shoes...pink and yellow ribboned sandals.  Mattel likes to go asymetrical with the MH line, so these were factory painted with a pink ribbon on top and the yellow on the bottom of one shoe, while the other shoe was reversed.  Personally it bugs me, but most people love it, so for the first pair I left it flipped, but changed the colors.  They are now a vivid lime green and a shimmery hot pink!

The second set got a more sedate update with several coats of crisp pearly white.  THESE I adore!!!  I have several of this shoe and have many plans for various versions!

Right now I've got about 18 more pair of various shoes getting their flat white base coats. It's time consuming and well a bit boring, but doing this allows me to get a much better coverage when I start changing colors, plus it allows me to replace the molded black in many shoes with much lighter colors, giving me so many more options!

 So let's see what's next...oh yes clothing... another area where I start and nearly finish, but those last few steps like snaps and pictures and yeah Listing often allude me, leaving me with a pile of 'Almost Ready' bits.  One of these days I'll get them all done and listed. But in the meantime I am working on several commissioned pieces. The first set I did was for a customer making a Pin-Up girl.  She had the shoes, stockings and a cute set of panties, but needed a long line bra/corset style top.  She wanted it to match the panties and I didn't think it would be a problem so I took the commission...well low and behold the picture she had of the panties wasn't the greatest and the color was off, and well if you know anything about Red you know it can be a horrid color to try and match...reds can lean either blue or orange and if you mix them, well it doesn't always look good.  In the end I decided to go ahead with the color she described to me as opposed to what her pictures showed. As a gift for her I made her a matching set of panties.  I figured that way if the original set she had didn't match my top, she would still have a complete outfit! 
Thankfully my customer LOVED it!!  Not only that but TONS of other Monster High fans did as well as some Barbie fans!  So I have already been commissioned to make more of these in various color in both doll sizes.

While the panties go together rather quickly being a single piece of fabric and a piece of stretchy trim, the top itself is well a bit of a lengthy process as the ENTIRE piece is hand sewn.  it's too small to do on the machine.  But all that being said I can still usually get one done in a day.

So far the biggest comments I've gotten is that people love that the panties are full coverage and cover all of the molded 'panty' details Mattel added.  Personally I love the way they actual conform to the dolls figure! The unique size and shape of these girls can make getting a good fit difficult at times so I'm a happy girl! :-)

Next up was a pair of outfits inspired by Abbey Bominable who is the daughter of the Yeti (the doll on the right), and one of my favorite characters.  My customer asked for icy cool colors and fluffy trim.  I created these 2 outfits.  The blue sheath dress fits snugly without being super tight and has a very subtle floral pattern, while the casual outfit on the right is just, well tons of fun!  I used a pale lilac-y blue miniature rib-knit to make a pull on off the shoulder sweater with fluffy white trim. I added a basic denim skirt to complete the outfit.

Again my customer was thrilled, and this set will ship out tomorrow along with a selection of 'icy' treats.

And speaking of treats brings us to the cake... It's been a while since I did a doll sized layer cake. Probably because I generally prefer to work on individual serving pieces, but I was contacted through my shop about recreating a real cake in miniature for a Marie Antoinette styled doll.  When the customer sent me this image----->

 I just KNEW I had to attempt it! Doesn't it look fun!!!  It was a bit of a challenge as she needed it to be light enough for the doll to hold.  So I broke out a package of Sculpey Ultra Light clay and set to work.  SUL clay works a little different than regular clay as it has an almost marshmallow like texture.  It's not my favorite clay to work with do to this, but by working in stages I was able to create a pretty good recreation.  At least I think so...

 While it's certainly not perfect and I can see several things I would do differently if I was going to do it again, my customer loved it and has promised to send me pictures of the completed doll. I can't wait to see them!


So that's about it for what I've been up to, time to get back to the sewing machine, paint and clay.  I've got more lingerie sets to make, as well as 4 commissioned dresses, all those shoes (plus 2 commissioned sets) to paint and another cake to sculpt. 

It's Thursday and I know the weather has been crazy lately, so I hope wherever you are, you are taking care and being careful if you've got nasty weather and enjoying it if you don't! Y'all have a wonderful upcoming weekend and I'll catch you later! :-)