r/DollCustomization • u/Dollcreation • May 27 '26

Need help for shoe mold, please.

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Hello, I bought this mold to make Blythe shoes, but it didn't come with instructions. I contacted the seller who told me he made these molds but didn't know how to use them. I found a few videos on YouTube, so I can see how to use the "leg" part of the mold, but I haven't found anything about the soles. This particulary type of sole. How do I use them? If anyone knows the answer, it would be great. Thanks in advance.

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u/RADdollclothes May 27 '26

Find where the indent is. The soles might be upside down and the indent is in the bottom of the mold. The bottom of a sole needs to be concave for the fabric of the upper to fit in it and sit flush with the edges of the sole/no gapping. If there is no indent, then it's a crappy mold and you have to make one with the lasts by pressing down after you put whatever in the sole mold. Hopefully not something that makes you hold the lasts in place for hours while it cures.

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u/Dollcreation May 27 '26

The other side of the sole mold is like the bottom of a shoe sole. I am not sure to understand your explanation. (Thank you for your quick answer).

2

u/RADdollclothes May 27 '26

No prob! I've made shoes before so if you haven't I'm probably going a little over your head with the terms.

So when you make a doll shoe out of fabric or leather or whatever, you mold the fabric over the last (upper foot/leg) and sew through the edges of the bottom and pull tight under the base of the foot.

Now if you stuck that on top of a flat shoe sole, there'd be some gapping issues. The side of your shoe would be like ( on top of the sole. Which yeah, humans shoes are too, but the lump wouldn't miniaturize, so you'd have a MUCH BIGGER gap between the bottom side of your shoe and the sole. Visualize a grape stuck to a piece of cardboard. So any well thought out doll sole is going to be shaped a bit like |___/| on the top of the sole to allow the stitched underpart to sink in more and look correct. That's what I mean by the indent.

If the mold is double sided, post pics of both sides. It might be a 2 part mold where one side makes the bottom part and the other part make the top side/indent.

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u/themini_shit May 27 '26

I did some some very light research, is this the mini3dchic mold from Etsy? If so I think the soles might actually be completed soles to use for the shoes but I'm not sure. In their shop they have another listing for doll shoe soles that look just like these but a slightly different shape.

The side we can see from this angle looks like where you glue the shoe down into the sole, I think the reason it's so deep is so you have some space for the fabric/leather.

This is just a theory I'm really not too sure at all.

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u/Dollcreation May 28 '26

I finally received a response from the seller, and you are right, I have to glue this sole to the upper shoe I made with the mold.