Shoes for the Aussie girls

I knew when I purchased the Australian Girl dolls and had them shipped to the UK that I should have bought some of Emily's boots, and the trainers that Helen and Roy are selling on their site, because Matilda and Belle's feet are larger than the Gotz dolls feet.  They most certainly DO NOT fit any of the American Girl doll shoes that we've got or the Gotz dolls shoes, except for Peter's original pair which are slightly loose on his feet.  Since Christmas I've been searching on the internet for suitable shoes.  Frustatingly some people on ebay would list the size of the shoe (one even claimed they were the internal dimensions) and on the face of it according to the measurements they gave, the shoes should have fitted, but every time I have bought some, they have been just too tight to slip onto Matilda and Belle's feet.

However in Australia a person called Rosie has set up a website from which she sells handmade dolls clothes for various sizes of play dolls, including the Australian girl dolls, and she very helpfully lists the actual foot lengths of each kind of doll.  She also shows which shoes actually fit each doll.  On her site were a couple of pairs I liked particularly and wondered if I could find them on ebay in the UK, as I could guess they were made in China and were probably available around the world. I realised from her list that the Aussie girl dolls were wearing the same shoes as some of the 19" baby dolls, such as Chou Chou.  So I widened my searches on ebay, and as a result realised that what I should try was 85 mm length shoes, not 70 mm shoes.  Result!  I found a UK based seller of the Reborn baby doll shoes, and this seller was selling exactly the shoes I had spotted on Rosie's dolls clothes site.  When they arrived they fitted beautifully and Belle and Matilda were both pleased to have some pretty new party shoes. 

 Matilda is wearing the white shoes and ice cream socks,
Belle is wearing the pink shoes and white socks

I've since also bought some other shoes for them, including baby doll trainers which don't look too babyish on them but I am keeping those 4 pairs back as an Easter surprise for my girls.

Matilda and Belle wearing their new shoes with borrowed outfits
and lounging on the deckchairs

Matilda wears the dress and top I made,
Belle wears the 'Nellie Rose' dress