ballet shoes sewing instruction help

[Guest figrsk8r]

My son is actually a figure skater and has been taking private dance lessons for the past year. His teacher is excellent, but pretty flexible on clothes for him since they've been utilizing various dance styles to improve his skating. And because of this he has always had his lessons in his socks. Now he's actually gotten fairly good and she is transitioning him to more traditional ballet instruction. So, we went out and bought our first pair of ballet shoes today to prevent him from sliding into the wall when he jumps across the floor. One problem, you have to sew the elastic on and I want to learn to do it the right way and basically haven't got a clue. I know it crosses around the foot, but should I hand sew or machine-stitch? straight or zig-zag? inside or outside of the shoe? Since I've never had to deal with this before, I'm at a loss. If any one could give me input or point me to a site that has instructions, I'd be very grateful. java script:emoticon(':thanks:')

[Victoria Leigh]

Hello figrsk8r, welcome to Ballet Talk for Dancers!

 

The elastic is sewn on the inside, by hand. If using one piece of elastic, fold the heel of the shoe inward, and where the crease is place the elastic. Just sew it around the outside 3 edges. Measure it for fit first. It should be tight enough to hold the shoe on or it's useless.

[Guest PAmom]

One thing that my son learned over time was to avoid catching the drawstring by accident when sewing on the elastic strap. It helps the drawstring do it's job properly.

[Guest gillian]

Knock knock...

My mom helped me sew my first ballet shoes, and she sewed them waaaay too tight. It hurt, but I didn't know it wasn't supposed to until someone commented on the imprints on my feet! To prevent this, make sure that, after you've sewed the first side of the elastic on, that you have your son try on the shoe, and see where you should sew the elastic on the other side. Oftentimes, the elastics are longer than you need, so you have some flexibility. Sew it so that the shoe won't come off, but also so that it's not too tight.