Doll Collecting, Doll Shoes, Vintage Barbie

Doll shoes for small dolls… Do you make ’em or buy ’em? Any favorites? #DollCollector #VintageBarbie

The text reads "Do you make your own doll shoes?" as a heading, followed by the following subheading: "If so, please tell us about them in the comments below!" Next it reads, "Do you use yarn, foam, fabric, or something else?" In the center of this image, we see two photos of handmade doll shoes that have been knitted. Text below the pair on the left reads, "The little knitted slippers here were made by my very talented mother-in-law, Anita." Under the photo on the right, it reads, "If you have made a doll shoe tutorial, please tell us how we can find it."
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

As a gift for her young neighbor, my mother-in-law recently knitted the cute little doll shoes/slippers that you see in the image at the top of today’s blog post, and it got me all nostalgic about doll shoes.

Do you remember getting “Little Extras” doll shoes or “Foot Notes” shoes or “Shoes N Boots” packages, back when you were a kid? I mean, the  minute you got them, one shoe got lost. It was inevitable! But for that brief moment, when the package was brand new… Ah! It was doll shoe heaven!

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On the left is a pair of wedge shoes for women, probably dating back to the mid 1970's. The wedge which makes up the bottom part of the shoe is made of cork, while the strap that crosses the foot above the toes is a braid of cotton fabric. This shoe style also has a strap at the ankle that connects it to the top of the wedge. Beneath this image, it says, "real wedge shoes." On the right, we see Barbie's legs and feet. Her shoes are brown plastic wedge shoes with a blue plastic "cloth" that covers the top of the doll's foot, above the toes, where the real shoes' braided fabric would be. Barbie's shoes are similar in terms of style, but her shoes don't have the strap at the ankle. The text under this image reads, "Barbie's wedge shoes."
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

I was born in the 1960’s, but I grew up during the 1970’s. I remember when Barbie had wedge shoes! Do you remember them?

Well last summer a friend of mine came by my house with a big box of cool old Barbie stuff that she just flat out gave me. And among the goodies in her collection were these tiny little wedge Barbie shoes. I almost cried! It was like winning the jackpot!

In the picture above, you can see how they really looked like a woman’s cork-heeled wedge shoes from that era. They were easy to slip on and off, and surprisingly, they actually stayed on a vintage Barbie’s foot pretty well.

But that navy blue plastic that went over the top of her foot often broke free on one side during play time. Then you’d have to play with one shoe on and one shoe taped together with Scotch tape! Hee hee hee!

A modern Asian Barbie models a handmade tank top (vest for those in the UK) over a pair of handmade blue culottes. On her feet are wedge shoes with blue plastic over the top part of Barbie's foot.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Here I have my modern-day Barbie wearing the wedge shoes, and they do fit her feet even though she’s not an old Barbie. And I really think these shoes go well with the culottes I made, using Advance 9939.

I plan to do a Monday blog post on the culottes later. Currently, though, this outfit needs a better shirt situation before I can write that blog post.

Along with these wedge shoes, my friend also gave me a very unusual knockoff Barbie doll that looks a lot like a Bild Lili. At first, I thought she WAS a Bild Lili. She’s actually a Uneeda Wendy though.

Uneeda Wendy in Floral Tammy Dress with Ruffle and White Plastic Pumps. The doll's hair is dark brown, pulled up in a pony tail at the back of her head. She wears white plastic pumps. Her handmade dress is multicolored floral in a 1960's style with a ruffle running along the bottom of it and a tie waist made from the same 1960's style floral fabric.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

On DollReference.com, these dolls are described as follows: “1960s Uneeda Wendy doll, 11 1/2″ tall, a Bild Lilli look a like, Barbie competitor” and they also mention that she came in different hair colors.

The thing I found most fascinating about my Uneeda Wendy, though, was her feet. Have a look:

A pair of hard plastic doll feet appear atop a grid. On the top of each foot, just above the doll's toes, we can see two little peaks of plastic that stick out above the foot itself, in a color of plastic that exactly matches the rest of the doll's foot.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Can you see those strange ridges on top of her feet? Those are designed to hold her shoes in place! I’m not kidding!

Her shoe’s straps slip over the ridge to hold them onto her foot. Until my friend Julie kindly gave me this Uneeda Wendy doll, I had never seen a doll who had feet like this before.

And I couldn’t believe she still had her original shoes! Wowzers! I mean, yes, the ridges atop her feet are designed to keep them from coming off, but as I said at the start of this blog post, the problem with doll shoes is the… Whoops! I lost it!

A young woman lowers her pink sunglasses, her jaw lowered with her mouth wide open. Behind her are the words "Whoops! Where did that shoe go?" In the lower right hand corner, we see only one hot pink pump. The other appears to be missing.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Okay everybody. It’s your turn now. What are your memories of doll shoes? Did you have a favorite pair? How did you keep them from getting lost?

Do any of you make your own doll shoes? And if so, what tools and craft supplies do you use? Do you knit or crochet them? Do you use hot glue and foam? Feel free to mention any doll shoe tutorials you’ve personally made or doll shoe tutorials you’d like to recommend in the comments section.

And before I go, I want to remind everyone that I do have a page for free doll shoe patterns and tutorials, right here on ChellyWood.com!

A woman's fingers place tiny shoes on a cylindrical platform or plinth. The shoes include a pair of rose colored pumps, a pair of hot pink Mary Janes, and a pair of purple oxford shoes. This image accompanies an article on Chelly Wood dot com, which discusses the tiny shoes for dolls both in present day and in history.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

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This image shows four rows of artist's renderings of doll clothing items. The top row shows four different styles of pants. The second row shows four different styles of shirts. The third row shows four different styles of skirts. The fourth row shows four different styles of dresses, with skirts in long, short, and mid-length styles. The text reads at the top, "Classes in Doll Clothing Design" followed by this paragraph: "Have you ever wished you could create patterns of your own? Click on the links to Chelly's online courses below, to learn more about her paid courses in doll clothing pattern design techniques."

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*Please note: when you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include Amazon, JoAnn Fabric, Etsy, and the eBay Partner Network. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. To learn more about how my website uses affiliate marketing, please visit the website’s Privacy Policy page.

Chelly Wood and the ChellyWood.com website are not affiliated with any of the doll or toy companies mentioned in this blog post, but Chelly enjoys designing her doll clothes to fit a variety of dolls. To learn more about the doll companies mentioned in today’s post, please visit the doll or toy company’s website.

4 thoughts on “Doll shoes for small dolls… Do you make ’em or buy ’em? Any favorites? #DollCollector #VintageBarbie”

  1. Dear Chelly,

    I was born in the 1960s and grew up in the ’70s also. I never received a shoe pack for fashion dolls when I was a kid but I bought several of them as an adult collector. Back I the ’80s, I remember buying a cheap shoe bag for dolls from Woolworth.

    Thanks again for another interesting blog,
    Trisha

    Reply

  2. Doll shoes are love and hate. For Barbie doll we can find a lot of possibilities, new and send hand. For other dolls, vintage shoes are very expensive (as for my Bionic woman doll) and usually sold in US with high shipping costs.
    The knitted shoes are lovely 😻
    It’s an option if you can knit. In old patterns there were proposals for shoes or boots for Barbie, Ken and Skipper too.
    A cheap option is buying something from China on aliexpress or similar sites. It is very difficult to find the right ones, since they never write the shoes sizes but only the doll sizes (ex for a 32cm doll) and the same for socks. I have found a pair of shoes once for Wendy but I found it no more.

    Reply

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