Friday, December 29, 2006

How to design bare feet for cloth dolls


Marcia asks:
I'd love to make some of my cloth dolls with bare feet, but I've had a hard time coming up with the pattern myself, and I haven't seen any instructions online. Can you give me some advice? Thanks....and thanks for the great blog!For a very basic foot, the key is to sew the foot in two steps. Here is a funny little leg I'm working on for a troll that we will use as a visual aid. When you design your foot pattern, leave the toe area open and make it a little longer than you wish the finished foot to be. Then sew your leg together. For the troll leg I sewed all around the outside of the leg - leaving an opening at the back of the thigh to stuff through and leaving the toe area unsewn. Don't turn the leg inside out yet. Open the toe area so the seams are centered on the top and bottom of the foot. Pin. Draw a curved line for the toes. Make sure you have a left and right foot. Sew on the curved line. Clip, turn and stuff. Then you can needle sculpt the toes in.

Hope this helps!
Judi



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Judi,
I have been having fun reading this blog of yours. What a brilliant idea it is and you are wonderful in answering so many questions. What a whealth of information you are.
Thought I would chip in on this one. You can design your bare feet by laying your own bare feet sideways on a sheet of paper and drawing all around it. It is fiddly but you can do it. Once you have got the basic shape you can reduce and tweek the pattern to whatever you want. Sounds easy doesn't it. It is, and this I learnt from Patti Culea.
hope it helps