Altering dancing shoes

Long time no post, what can I say - except that I have been very busy at the end of the year. First came the preparations for LDoll, then the stress at the end of the year with a heavy flu, but now things are starting to get back to normal and I hope that I'll be able to share more doll stuff in the coming days.

Today for instance I worked on some ballet dancing shoes that I bought from Dollmore during the LDoll festival. Because to get proper doll items it does not always make sense to create them completely from scratch. Sometimes there is also the option to alter existing products to make them work for your needs. I almost always do that with wigs. There is actually hardly a doll wig in my collection that was not restyled at some point 😂.

But let's return to the shoes. So I got this lovely pink shoes. As you can see the binding ribbon is wayyyy to large, I mean it's almost human sized!

So the first (though scary) thing is to cut them off. I checked if it was possible to remove them completely, but unfortunately they are sewn into the shoe. So I got a pair of sharp scissors and cut them off as carefully and closely to their base as possible:

And that's what they looked like with the ribbons removed. When looking from above you can still tell where they have been, but from the side they're not noticeable anymore.

Then the fun part came, looking for a new pair of binding ribbons. I actually do have a large stock of ribbons, laces and stuff - and particularly much in pink and rose, but unfortunately I didn't have the exact same color in the perfect size. So I decided to go with some transparent rose laces instead. 

A quick check with the feet in place just to see, where exactly the laces will have to be fixed. And then I sewed them in place. By the way, make sure you use a thimble when sewing, because it does take some effort to get the needle through the cardboard(?) that was used as base for these shoes. You do not want to end up with sore fingers.

Et voilà the ballet dancing shoes are finally finished. And that's what they look like when they are properly laced. I did have to check a Youtube video for instructions (hey, I'm no ballet dancer), but it was very informative! Did you know for instance that many ballet dancer do actually buy the laces separately from the shoes and attach them later? Well, I at least didn't. All those things you learn from owning dolls! 😅