T-Shirt Hack: Machine Sewing Tutorial

One of the most frustrating parts of making doll clothes is that even experienced seamstresses find that the rules of good garment construction don't always work out on 1:6 or 1:8 scale.
Necklines prove especially difficult, and on stretchy material such as sweaters and t-shirts it's darn near impossible to get a quality finish unless you have a few tricks up your sleeve.

So here is my ultra-quick, ultra-easy cheater method for getting smooth necklines without all the frustration. It works on *doll scale because you don't actually pull the t-shirt over the doll's head.

Fair warning: I don't have a camera-person so I have to prop my iPad up on it's side to get the shot so the video is oriented the wrong direction. My sincere apologies.

There you go! By using a **stabilizer and turning the neckline before finishing it off you get a pretty clean looking garment without the all of the frustration.
If you found this tutorial useful, I'd love it if you share photos of your finished t-shirts and sweaters on my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/rosiegirlsdolls

*This method won't work for children's clothing because it doesn't allow for enough stretch to get a kid's head through.

**You can also use interfacing, dryer sheets, paper towel, or a stiff piece of lining material instead of TP to stabilize your fabric.

Hot Glue Shoes Part 3: Prep, Paint, and Seal Your Shoes

Sorry for the short hiatus folks. I was hoping to get this published before the weekend, but... Easter.

If you've missed videos #1 and #2, please go back and visit my other tutorials and materials lists here:

Materials List

Video 1

Video 2

So to wrap up our series on hot glue shoes, here you go. I hope that I've cleared things up for you, and that you now have the info that you need to go forth and create. As always, if you have questions or concerns, please feel free to message me on Facebook or leave me a comment right here!

If you'd like to purchase molds or pre-cast feet for your dolls and skip right ahead to the painting fun, please feel free to visit my Etsy shop.

Tutorial #2: Casting Your Hot Glue Shoes... aka the REALLY exciting part!

Are you pumped!? I am! Today we're going to use our pretty oogoo molds from video #1 to make
ACTUAL.

DOLL.

SHOES...

Let's let that sink in for a moment. Breathe deeply and imagine a world free of eBay auctions, silicone tubes, cornstarch snowstorms, and expensive craft specialty products....

Can you feel it? It's electric.

But before I begin, a few questions about the last video:

#1: What are the proportions of cornstarch/cornflour to silicone that you use?
I use approximately a 1:1 ratio. The less cornstarch you can use, the better, as we'll see in this video. Too little, however, and you just have an icky, sticky mess. I don't like to goof around with silicone very often because of the fumes, so I always mix up huge batches and work quickly. I prefer to eyeball around 1/4 cup of each. Sorry metric folks... I live in the back woods and we still use the English system. I thiiiiink that works out to be around 60 mL of silicone and the corresponding volume of cornstarch.

#2: Do you use any special brands of silicone/cornstarch/hot glue/petroleum jelly?
Nope. I'm on a budget, folks. Like a hey! Let's just skip lunch at work today, k? kind of budget. So I just use the cheapest stuff I can find. So far, it's working well for me.

#3: Is hot glue toxic? 
Everything I've seen says that it's not, including the package it comes in. I assume, however, that if ingested you should probably call a medical professional and ask for their opinion. I can assure you that it is for SURE better for you than oogoo, but beyond that, I'm no scientist.

#4: Ack! Burns! I can't use hot glue without frying myself. Can I use a low temp glue gun to reduce the damage?
I've never found one large enough to handle the volume of glue you need to make shoes successfully. My mini one cools off too quickly to pour an entire foot at once, and I end up with lots of lumps and bumps. If you can find a mega glue gun that works at a low temp setting, PLEEEEAAAASSSSE let me know where you found it, and if they have a sales coupon. I would love to experiment.

Now that I've addressed the most common questions I've been asked, let's get cracking. These shoes ain't going to make themselves.

Cooling times for shoes:

Thick shoes (Sketchers style sneakers, etc) & boots: 11-13 minutes

Converse, thinner shoes (loafers, Mary Janes, etc.): 9-11 minutes

Very thin shoes, flip flops, bare feet: 8 minutes

So there you go! It's as simple as that. I don't currently have any pre-cast feet for sale because I have sold out the little bit of surplus I did have, but if you would rather skip the frying your fingers part and just grab a pair of shoes from me, just hop on over to my Etsy shop and put in a custom order.

Please tune in tomorrow for Part 3: Painting and sealing your hot glue feet! And as always, if you like what you see, don't forget to pin and share! 

Tutorial #1: Making the Molds for your HOT GLUE Shoes!

HOT GLUE SHOES!!!!! Yes. This is really happening. Zero waste (once you have your molds set), non-toxic, removable shoes that you can make for about thirty cents a pair. 

Before beginning, please make sure to check out my materials list here. 

So here we go! If you like what you see, please remember to share & pin!
Also, if we could please pretend that I don't look like road kill, that would be super sweet.

(insert excuse about being a working mom... blah blah blah... I have a weird muppet voice...this video looks like a hot mess but I promise that it's all good information). 

If you've never made oogoo before, please reference this third party video. I did not make this video, nor am I affiliated with this individual, but it's a good basic primer on how to mix up oogoo from silicone caulk and corn starch/ corn flour. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXhiv_uH8kU

*Update 4/30/15: Putting petroleum jelly on 

your hands before handling oogoo makes it less of a hideous mess. Also make sure to get silicone I, NOT low odor or silicone II caulk, which won't set.
If this seems a bit overwhelming, if you dont have any shoes to make molds of to begin with, or if you simply don't want to goof around with the oogoo, please feel free to swing by Etsy shop and check out my listing for the  oogoo molds pictured in this tutorial.

Materials List for Hot Glue Shoes

So here goes nothing. I was hoping to get my website looking a little more polished before I started posting tutorials, but since the hot glue shoe secret is out, you're going to need a few pointers to get it right (and not burn the heck out of your hands in the process). I'll be posting my tips and tricks over the next few days, starting with a Materials List today.

Here's what I use:

100% silicone caulk

corn starch

Bratz feet or shoes

HIGH TEMP hot glue gun (very important that it be high temp)

Multi-Temp or High Temp hot glue

Acrylic Paints

Mod Podge

Petroleum Jelly

Additional Embellishments

Check back tomorrow for a video tutorial on how to successfully make a the shoe molds.