How To Make Miniature Shoes – 7 Different Ways!

In the series of miniature tutorials, today we are going to do some research on making miniature shoes DIY style.

If you are looking for any other miniature tutorials and I haven’t written about that yet, please feel free to ask. On my FAQ page, you can find an oversight of the tutorials that I already talked about. There’s too much to sum them all up again here ;-).

So, let’s dive deeper into things!

What Kind Of Miniature Shoes Are We Talking About Here?

I always try to base my blog posts on what exactly people are looking for on Google and try to answer their questions.

So the further I dive into my article, the more ideas can come up that I need to talk about.

For now, I have seen people asking:

• how to make miniature/tiny shoes?
• how to make miniature ballet shoes?
• how to make miniature fairy/tiny elf shoes?
• how to make miniature glass shoes for Barbie dolls?
• how to make miniature paper shoes?
• how to make tiny doll shoes?

Now, I am not saying that these questions are all of what people are looking for, but let’s try to include these anyway. I can imagine though, that for example (when I’m brainstorming), that people also wonder how to make mini shoes with clay or fabrics.

So I will be doing my best to find out!

How To Make Mini Glitter Sneakers Shoes.

Thé best way in explaining how to make miniature shoes would be by showing videos.

Now, as you can imagine, I could not be making everything that is to be made in the miniature world out there myself ànd make videos of it. (although in the future I will be focussing more on that on my own Youtube channel, I hope so 😉 ).

Anyway, today I will be mostly showing you the existing Youtube video’s out there, focussing on mini shoes.

Here is a pretty neat one. In the video below, the person is making tiny glitter sneakers. There seems to be no further information, but it seems to me that the materials she is using are:

• EVA-foam, which is a type of copolymer.
• glitter EVA-foam
• fine scissors
• glue (she doesnt mention what kind of glue, but I would advize using “fast grab Tacky glue“)
• a needle and embroidery thread

A walkthrough:

• Measure the EVA-foam in the size of a dolls feet
• Glue two of these pieces together
• Attach glitter EVA foam to construct a small shoe
• Attach a small and long piece on the back of the shoe, like you can see on a real sneaker.
• Do the same at the bottom and around the shoe
• make holes in the foam in the right places, so that you can insert little “shoelaces”.

And done!

How To Make Miniature Glass Shoes For Barbie Dolls.

Wow, nice, have a look at these shiny little glass shoes below!

Beware: That this is a much longer and harder tutorial and that you need more materials!

You need:

• polymer clay and resin
• scissors
• a crafting knife
• paper and toothpicks
• a file
• glitter
• aluminium tape
• reusable plastic bags
• nail art parts

A walkthrough:

• look for the size of a mini shoe online, print it out and cut out the form of the shoe
• prepare thin polymer clay and make it flat (you could use a pasta machine, for example or just a bottle)
• this way you can cut out the bottom of your shoes with a crafting knife
• using the paper and toothpics, as shown in the video above, you can create a curve for the bottom of the shoes. Bake these on a temperature of 120 degrees for about 35 minutes maximum.
• clean up the shoes with some sandpaper or a file, remove the toothpics and trim them with a craft knife untill they are pointy. You now have a heel
• make a mold from “bluemix”. I don’t know where to find that, so I would think using regular clay is enough. Fill up the molds with clear resin and let them dry out.
• add glitter and aluminium tape
• put clear resin on the piece of plastic three times and bake it three times. When done, cut out the circkles that you need in the right size. Cut the circkles in half. Use resin to attach these resin plates to the shoes.
• do the same for the front part, trim the shoe heels and attach them as well
• decorate the shoes with nail art parts
• apply some more resin and bake it for the last time

And done, look how shiny and cute!

How To Make (Glitter) Dolls Shoes From Paper And Cardboard

This one is easier with the use of less (expensive) materials, let’s dive straight into things!

What you need:

• scissors
• cardboard
• a wire that you use to close bags (metal wire)
• some toilet paper
• glue
• paint
• glitter

A walkthrough:

• Draw the size of the shoes with the help of the cardboard and a doll, and cut out 2 pairs of soles of the feet.
• glue a piece of wire between 2 soles and do that for 2 shoes
• bend it so that it’s shaped for the dolls’ soles
• attach 5 little pieces of cardboard, all glued together
• let it dry and cut of the edges: you now have the front of the shoe ready
• make the heels and fronts as instructed in the video
• you need to glue a lot of paper layers to finish the shoe!
• paint inside and below and add a lot of glitter
• retouch/finish/paint
• mix water and glue and cover the shoe with that mix, let it dry

And done!

How To Make Miniature Long Boots

A quite short video this time on how to make miniature boots for a doll.

What you need:

• foam board
• PVC leather
• all round glue (for leather, etc)
• a needle
• embroidery floss

A walkthrough:

• cut out a shoe base using foam board
• cut out 2 pieces of PVC leather size 6,5cm x 7cm and glue them together
• in the middle of that piece: draw a 0,7 cm wide piece, and glue this to the shoe base and add everything as instructed in the video
• cut both sides along the legs of the doll
• glue a piece of black foam as a shoe base
• make holes for the shoe laces
• use embroidery floss as shoe laces

And done!

Making Miniature Leather Shoes.

Making cute little leather miniature shoes, no English translation, so it’s a bit hard to follow and to know what to do exactly, but I will give it a try.

What you need:

• glue (suitable for leather)
• embroidery floss (grey and black)
• a hammer
• scissors
• a pin
• a box cutter
• leather
• a needle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_f7za3iWWI

A walkthrough:

• No sizes are mentioned, so I suppose you need to figure out for yourself in which scale you want to work
• Cut out the patterns for the leather shoes
• use a pin to mark all the holes in the leather pieces
• cut out everything from the leather and make the holes
• sew everything together by hand as instructed in the video
• let it soak in water
• glue the soles on the shoes (with an extra piece at the back of the shoe)

And done, again!

How To Make DIY Miniature Converse All Stars

In the next tutorial, you can easily make All Stars Converse shoes. What you need is:

• this template
• scissors
• there is also a template for the shoebox
• a piece of polymerclay
• a crafting knife
• glue
  

A tutorial:

• Cut out the pieces from the template
• Now, I think that the next thing she uses is a piece of white polymer clay, or painted white. Or is it a kind of foam? I’m not quite sure. Anyway, glue the cut out pieces of the soles on it, and trim/file the rest with a craft knife.
• Apply all the pieces of the template
• make holes with a pin at the places where the shoe laces will be
• Insert thin pieces of paper into the holes and make them look like shoe laces
• Follow the same procedure for the shoe box

And done!

How To Make Miniature Ballet Shoes.

Another small tutorial, this time on how to make DIY tiny ballet shoes. What you need:

• paper
• a pencil
• hot glue
• scissors
• nail polish (the color you like)
• a ribbon

A walkthrough:

• Draw the foot of the doll on a piece of paper
• extend the corner of the tip a little bit longer then the foot and trace that onto a piece of baking paper and place the paper face down.
• put hot glue around the trace of the foot ( as seen in the video to see what I mean)
• remove the glue after it cooled down and glue the tips at an angle. Set that asside
• cut thin strips of baking paper and place them in front of the dolls feet and wrap it around the ancle. Make sure it can’t get loose.
• Place the dried mold of the glue on the dolls foot and add glue on the bottom of the foot
• Wait untill the glue dries while holding it.
• When dried, trim the unwanted pieces and clean it up
• use several layers of nail polish on the shoe or acrylic paint
• you can glue a little piece of ribbon at the back of the shoe
• measure a piece of ribbon three times the length of the dolls leg and cut in half. Glue these at an angle at the side of the shoe
• tie the ribbon around the leg

And done!

My Final Conclusion.

I have no personal experience making miniature shoes, but I do hope that I could give you some ideas on how to make them DIY, with the help of these videos.

In a future blog post, I will show you fantastic miniature artists that sell the most amazing miniature shoes out there, so keep posted!

If you have any questions or would you just like to chat some more with me then please leave a comment below or join me on my social media channels or Facebook group.

I wish you happy crafting!

Kind regards,

Lizzy