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Saturday 27 February 2010

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

8 comments:

Lize said...

Have you tried the American Girl Dolls? They have a wide variety of products and the 'Australian' doll looks to me a lot like them.

DollMum said...

Hi Lize,
The American girl dolls have the same size feet as the Gotz dolls, and we do have some AG doll shoes. However the AG dolls are 18" tall, so are a bit shorter and stouter than the slim Gotz dolls, whilst the Aussie dolls are not so slim, though are the same height as the Gotz dolls.

We don't have any American dolls (though I do have a couple of the mini 6" versions lurking in my cupboard for a little girl for Christmas sshhh).

I think it would be very dangerous for me to go to New York and visit the American Girl doll shop there, I would need an extra suitcase to come home!

Pan said...

Shoe are very cute - the ice cream socks are adorable :-)

Papillon Bleu said...

So dolls too are shoes addict?
;-)

Rosie said...

Hi Doll Mum, I'm Rosie from Rosie's Dolls Clothes and I am so glad you found my website to be helpful in finding the right size shoes for your Aussie girl dolls. Thank you also for the positive mention on your blog.
It is amazing how the same size doll, be it 13", 15", 18" or whatever, can have completely different size feet so it is very important to measure the foot when looking for shoes to fit your doll and add at least 5mm to the length of the foot to ensure a good fit. Measuring the existing shoes that you have can also be a trap as different style shoes may have different size soles, so always measure the doll foot and go from there.
Thanks again for the mention and I look forward to following your blog.

DollMum said...

Hi Papillon Bleu and Pandora, I think our doll collection have more shoes, socks and tights than I have! The shoes make an outfit. I can make the outfits, but it is not so easy to make shoes, though I think I will have to to enable the Aussie Girls to ice skate! (using skate blades of Gotz skates). At the moment they act as 'judges' for Dancing on Ice (sitting in the deck chairs of course)!

Rosie, I'm glad you liked the mention. It is very tempting to shop internationally for handmade outfits, but as I can sew, I can't really justify it (except when I bought the kimonos from Hong Kong for Christmas gifts... http://dollmum.blogspot.com/2009/12/happy-christmas-tide-welcome-aussie.html)

My Realitty said...

Hi dollmum I just left a creative blogger award for you at my blog:
http://Myrealitty.blogspot.com/ Stop by to pick it up.I love your blog! :) CM

Austysmum said...

I have those same shoes for my daughter's Australian Girl doll - too cute! I also found that many of the baby doll socks fit Emily. I hadn't even thought abouty the foot size being different so I think you have definitely saved me some time as I was about to knit her some slippers from an Am Girl pattern. Now I know I will need to alter it. Thanks!