Reemah Afia's Sandals, New Sash, and Cut Hair!

Reemah Afia arrived with bare feet wearing a black sash with her caftan-style dress as shown above.  Bare feet on dolls is one of my pet peeves.  Shoes, sandals, or some form of footwear is preferred.  I had also seen photos of other collectors' dolls wearing the "yellow" caftan dress that my doll wears with a gold sash instead of a black one.  I wanted a gold sash for my doll, too.

To remedy the bare feet issue, I initially planned to make a pair of sandals, which would have been easy to do; however, the square cork coasters I purchased specifically to use as soles are nowhere to be found. (I had them in one place after purchasing and then put them in another, but where that second location is, I cannot remember).

The Sandals

Plan B was to purchase a pair of sandals for Reemah Afia.  I found the above pair offered on both eBay and Aliexpress.  Based on the description and measurements provided, it seemed they would be a good fit for Reemah Afia's oddly sized feet (too small for her 22-inch height).  Because of their low price with free shipping on Aliexpress, I ordered the sandals in several colors with a plan for her to wear an orange pair to pick up the colors in her dress.  After they arrived, the brightly colored orange sandals were swapped out for the brown sandals.

The sandals, unfortunately, are not the correct length.  The sole is slightly shorter than her foot, which would not be a problem if the foot could fit inside properly, but the too-short heel strap prevents this.  Determined to make these work, I devised a quick fix. What I did is captured in the following photos and captions.

The strap at the heel was cut in half.

The initial plan was to pierce both side edges of the cut heel strap using one of the upholstery needles shown above and to use braiding cord to extend the straps.  I made one piercing with the needle, but the hole was not large enough to thread the braiding cord through.  So the ends of each heel strap were turned under and scissors were used to cut two horizontal parallel slits into both sides of the heel straps.

Two pieces of equal-length braiding cord were cut.  The cord was threaded through the slits in the heel strap starting from the undersurface of the lower slit to the top, led across to the upper slit, and taken down through the bottom surface of that slit.  This was repeated on the other heel strap using the second braiding cord.

Both cords were then tied to create a bow in back.

Voila!  Reemah Afia now has sandals that fit.

The New Sash

Reemah Afia's original black sash is shown above.

A vintage gold cloth napkin, shown folded in half, was used to make the new sash.

The black sash was placed on top of the folded cloth napkin and the material needed for the new sash was cut out.

The edges of the cut-out sash were ironed under.  Stitch Witchery was used to seal the edges.  Finally, adhesive-backed Velcro was placed on the two opposing ends of the sash.  Both sides of the completed sash, front and back, are shown in the above photo.

The new sash better coordinates with the fabric of Reemah Afia's dress.

Reemah Afia's caftan dress looks much better with the gold sash and her feet are now covered.

Cut Hair
My only disappointment with this doll is she arrived with the first row of rooted hair cut at the hairline of her brow!  I noticed this upon her arrival but did not give this much thought until another collector contacted me about her brown-haired doll's cut hairline. (She owns both versions, the brown-haired and black-haired versions).  As unevenly cut as my doll's hair is underneath, I know this was done intentionally.  Why?  I have no idea.  Was this to keep the hair away from her face?  That's possible because the brown hair is not as coarse as the black hair used for these dolls (as confirmed by the other collector who also indicated the black-haired doll's hairline is uncut).  Cutting the hair at the hairline was not a remedy to keep the hair away from the doll's face.  If any trimming had to be done, it should have been done from the ends of the hair and not at the roots or even better, at the discretion of the buyer!  Why would anyone cut perfectly rooted hair?  Just why?

With her hair pulled back Reemah Afia's cut hairline is visible.

As indicated, the hairline is unevenly cut.  My thumb holds down the longest cut piece.

I contacted Makedaa Dolls about the cut hair, but at the time of publication, I have not received a response.  So potential buyers should beware that if you desire the brown-haired doll and you do not want a doll with a cut hairline, you might think twice or ask the company if the doll you will receive will have a cut hairline.  This is very unfortunate for an otherwise nicely made doll.  I'd be interested in knowing if any other brown-haired Reemah Afia doll owners' dolls have cut hairlines.  Please let me know in a comment to this post.

My original post about Reemah Afia, written after her arrival, can be read here.


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Sandals for Ashanti Keisha

Ashanti Keisha by The Keisha Doll Company, 1991

Ashanti Keisha arrived with bare feet.  My written plan upon introducing her here was to make replacement sandals.  That task has been completed and is outlined below.

Materials Used:

• Foam, two shades of tan 
• Piece of corrugated box 
• Aleene's Tacky Glue 
• Scissors, straight edge and pinking shears 
• Scotch tape 
• Braiding cord (not shown)
• Something to use as a weight 
• Paper clips 

What Was Done (Photos follow): 

• Keisha's feet were traced onto a piece of corrugated box and the tracing cut out. 
• Two pieces of foam were cut out using the cardboard cut-outs as a guide. 
• Two rectangular pieces of foam measuring 4-2/8 inches x 1-1/2 inches were cut. 
• The rectangular band was wrapped around each piece of foam (the innersoles) allowing the edges to meet underneath and in the middle. 
• The wrapped edges of the rectangular pieces were taped to the underside of the innersoles.  Then,
• these were glued to the corrugated box pieces and a weight placed on top to hold everything in place while the glue dried. 
• Ultimately, jumbo paper clips were opened slightly and clipped to the gaps between the foam innersole and corrugated box sole -- this, however, left the impression of the paper clip, but it should eventually lift. 
• Braiding cord was glued around the edge of the soles to fill in the gaps in the cut edge of the corrugated box.  This also adds a nice trim. 
• Two, 1-inch strips of foam (same color as the band of the sandals) were cut along with two, 1-inch foam strips of a contrasting color. 
•  One edge of the above-described strips was cut using pinking shears. 
• The zigzag edges of the tan strips were joined with those of the strips of contrasting color and glued to the top-mid area of the bands. 

That's it!

The Photos:

Traced feet onto corrugated cardboard

Used cardboard tracing to cut foam innersoles; cut a foam band for each sandal.

Foam bands wrapped around innersoles and taped underneath

Band-taped foam innersole glued to cardboard soles; a staple gun and coffee mug used as weight to hold glued pieces in place until glue dried.

Removed the "weight"; added jumbo paper clips to corners of band and innersole/sole areas.  Cut four, 1-inch strips of foam; trimmed one side of each with pinking shears; joined the zigzag edges.

Glued the foam strips onto the band.

Ashanti Keisha models her new sandals.

Because all pieces are flat, these sandals required less time to make than the white Roman-style sandals seen in an earlier post.

~*~*~*~*~*

Before deciding to use corrugated cardboard for the soles of Keisha's sandals, Husband and I shopped at Walmart to locate just a small square of cork. He wanted to know why I needed it; so I shared my plan to make these sandals.  Walmart had cork in stock in a multipack, more than I needed and more than I wanted to pay.

With Keisha wearing her new sandals, I took her into Husband's, man cave to show him my handiwork.  Based on his initial sigh and the expression on his face, I knew he thought I needed him to repair her.  Then he saw the sandals and said. "Oh, the sandals.  You're getting pretty good at this, with a design on top and all." 

I smiled.  Then Keisha and I went back to our cubbyhole on the opposite end of the house.

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Muscle-Bound Man's Surpise Gift

A few weeks ago, a surprising treat in the form of a tiny blue envelope from Paulette of Limbe Dolls was found in my PO box.  The accompanying handwritten note described the contents as a belated birthday gift.  How special I felt!

It was early June.  Even though my birthday is in mid-May, I was still celebrating and delighted to have someone favor me in such a manner. 

I found the perfect guy to wear the handmade pair of black ribbon-woven sandals with foam soles.  He had been wearing the green striped Ken Fashionistas tank that he still wears.  The tank, however, was the extent of his proper attire for the 92-degree weather we were experiencing the day the sandals arrived. 

Temperatures have soared above 100 here in Texas since then and I know my muscle-bound man is happy he was chosen to wear the sandals.  The khaki Ken shorts that replaced his thick denim pants were a welcome change the day the sandals arrived. 

Later that day, after the weather cooled, my guy and I went outside briefly where he first modeled his new sandals and then struck a muscle-flexing pose for his full-length photograph.  See below.

Black ribbon, basket weave sandals by Limbe Dolls, scaled for Power Team figures

My muscle-bound, Ultra Corp guy, flexes his deltoid, biceps, and triceps muscles as he cools off in summer clothes and new sandals.

Doll people are so very wonderful and Paulette is no exception to this fact.  Her generosity as well as her creativity are beyond measure.

Thank you again, Paulette, for your thoughtfulness and for sharing with me your creative works.

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If you have not already viewed the Limbe Dolls tutorials on how to make sandals and other items for your playscale guys and gals, here is a link to the Youtube channel.  Visit the Limbe Dolls Etsy store where Paulette sells some of her creative works from time to time, and follow her blog, as I do, for updates on "the serious business of doll play."  

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The title of this post is taken from the 1964 song, My Guy by Mary Wells.  "No muscle-bound man can take my hand from my guy... my guy... my guy.  No handsome face could ever take the place of my guy... my guy... my guy.  He may not be a movie star, but when it comes to being happy, we are.  There's not a man today, who can take me away from my guy. 

(A good fourth grade memory, imagining true love.)

Press the play arrow to see and hear the beautiful,  Mary Wells perform My Guy.



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