Pointe Shoe Prep: Sewing

Yeah, I know this isn't really related to what I usually post, but nerds can do ballet too, right? Anyway, I've tried lots of different methods of sewing/breaking in my pointe shoes, but this is what I've found works best for me.

Materials:

wow nice photography skills jayda

-a new pair of pointe shoes
-3/4 inch grosgain ribbon to match the color of your shoes (mine look all wrinkly because I recycled them from my last pair)
-3/4 inch pink elastic
-light pink/cream thread
-a sewing needle
-a pen
-matches or a lighter
-scissors (fabric scissors work best but I couldn't find mine so I used these scary looking ones)

What to do:
1) The purpose of your ribbons is to support your arch while you're dancing, so you want them to be sewn right where your arches are. Find this place by putting on your shoe with your ribbon underneath your foot. Pull on each ribbon until you've found the highest point of your arch.

the ribbon is at the highest point of my arch

Mark each side of the ribbons on the drawstring casing with your pen. This is where they will be sewn in later. Then mark an "R" on the bottom of your shoe if you used your right foot, and an "L" if you used your left foot.

2) Now cut your ribbons into four equal lengths if they aren't already. If you want to insert elastic into some or all of them, do that now. My ribbons have elastics pre-sewn into them; you can buy those here.

3) Fold up one of the ribbons about 3/4 of an inch twice to enclose the raw edge.

folded over twice

4) Line up the top folded edge with the bottom of the drawstring casing, the folded side facing the canvas. Starting on the inside of the shoe on one edge of the ribbon, make a whipstich around the drawstring casing.

inside view

outside view

5) Once you reach the other side of the ribbon, sew a running stitch around the rest of the edges, making sure to only go through the canvas layers and not the satin on the outside. This may take a few tries, but it looks really nice if there is no thread on the outside of the shoe.

your needle should look like this when making the stitches

Go all the way around the edge, and finish with a French knot (pull the needle under a stitch you already made and back through the loop).

this is what it should look like when you're finished

Repeat steps 3-5 on the other side of the shoe.

6) You can either sew your elastics on the outside of the shoe at the back near the seam, or on the inside of the shoe in between the side seams and the back seams. I like to put them on the back at the outside because the other place tends to give me blisters. Put on your shoe and hold one end of the elastic where you want to sew it. Stretch it across your foot and cut it at the other side.

7) To sew on the elastics, I usually just use the same whipstitch method that I use for the ribbons, but without the running stitch around the edge. This is usually strong enough for me. Again, finish with a French knot.

this is the back seam of the shoe, by the way

Repeat with the other end of the elastic.

nice

8) Now put on your shoe and tie your ribbons on the INSIDE of your ankle. Cut the loose ends so that there's about 1 1/2-2 inches of excess ribbon outside of the knot.

aren't they so pretty???

9) Take off the shoe and burn the ends of the ribbons.

Repeat steps 3-9 on the other shoe, and they're halfway ready to use! I'll be making a post on how to break them in soon. See ya later!