Swapping Flat Feet For Heel Feet (Soom Super Gems)

Ashley (a Super Gem Snow White on the 2012 body) needed to be switched to flat feet so she can stand in a small corner of the doll closet on her flat feet--I am out of room for her to sit. :o

 It's fairly easy to swap feet, but a second pair of hands helps a lot, especially if your doll is strung tightly (Ashley is not). Here's the elastic going up into the ankle and foot:

I use a crochet hook and a ribbon--the ribbon is 1/4 inch Offray Satin and is incredibly strong. It's a little stiff, too; which helps get it down long pieces like the thighs and calves when necessary. I like a 2 foot length of it for stringing, today I have a little leftover piece from something because I am too lazy to go look for the spool. Here is the crochet hook put through the elastic at the ankle:

It's important to put the hook (or chopstick) there and not through the ankle ball, because you need to be able to take the ankle ball off. Here is how the string is held on at the foot--with a resin hook.

Here is what it looks like when the elastic is slipped off the hook:

Then take your flat foot and test-fit the ankle ball into it--if it isn't going to fit, you might have the wrong foot, and the time to find out is not when you are wrestling with the elastic in mid-air.

Time for the ribbon! If you push up on the crochet hook, you should get a little gap to poke the ribbon through the elastic. Be sure both side of the ribbon are free of the crochet hook:

Now put the ribbon through the ankle ball. Be sure that the extra piece is pointed away from the leg.

This is the hardest part. If you have a second person, have them hold the ribbon ends and pull the elastic up through the ankle piece. If the string is tight, you might have to yank out the crochet hook at this point to get a little more slack in the elastic. The smooth surface of the hook makes it easier to do this in a hurry if you have to. The idea is to pull enough elastic up you can hook it with the foot hook. Of course the hook is sort of inside the foot, so it's a challenge. It might be tempting to hold the ends of the ribbon in your teeth, but don't do that--if it's really hard to get enough slack on the elastic, you can use your thighs as a vise for the whole doll, and that frees up both hands to manipulate that elastic. You might want to remove the wig or faceplate if your doll is a faceplate doll like Gneiss.

Here is the foot hooked on. Yes, it's blurry because it's hard to hold the doll, the foot, the elastic under tension with one hand and a camera with the other. And yes, doesn't everyone have a small Mayan temple made out of plaster hanging around? It's out because it needs some repairs.

Anyway, the foot is on!

Now you just have to do the other one. Here's Ash with her flat feet at last:

Don't forget to label the heel feet before you put them away. -.-