Cara in NZ Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 A small but significant annoying thing... I just bought a 'bargain' pair of Sansha demi-pointes online second-hand, for half the usual price, on NZ's equivalent of eBay. They fit DD perfectly but when we went to tighten the drawstrings – there aren't any! So they gape a bit on her. Does anyone have any tips on whether I can thread something through the casings (using microsurgery I suppose), as otherwise they are perfect? Hat elastic, for example? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dramascientist Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Hi Cara, yes you can buy the very thin elastic (well you can in Europe so I am sure its availabe there). You will need a curved needle to thread it through but sometimes it is difficult to get the elastic through the hole in the needle. In this case I usually thread the needle with thick buttonhole or embroidery thread and sew it to the elastic and pull the elastic through after the thread( hope this makes sense). It is very fiddely and takes ages but with patience it can be done. Hope this helps DRSC 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cara in NZ Posted February 12, 2015 Author Share Posted February 12, 2015 Thank you dramascientist – I love seeing that it only took 3.5 hours for someone to come up with a solution, even when I posted in the UK wee small hours! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dramascientist Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katymac Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 & I find for a very small channel to put a threat through, feeding the needle backwards rather than point first can help you fingers and the item to be threaded Good luck, I imagine it will be 'challenging' 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trog Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 A metal guitar string is an excellent tool for threading elastic through shoes. You can push it from the end, so no fiddly feeling for something in the channel. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cara in NZ Posted February 13, 2015 Author Share Posted February 13, 2015 Sigh, well I've done it but half-wrecked the shoes in the process. By snipping tiny holes in the casings, I did eventually find the (elastic) drawstrings, halfway back round the shoe. So I suspect the DD had untied them and they'd sprung back inside. I used a tiny safety pin to thread them, but had to knot some extra elastic on to make them longer. Hardest part was exiting at the toe end (vamp?), as the casing is doubled over there. So we have drawstrings, but I have a LOT of fiddly sewing to do to try to conceal all raggedy holes I've made in the casing. MORAL: tell your DC never to cut their drawstrings very short!!! (And thanks for all the suggestions. Must purloin a guitar string from somewhere.) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Oh, I feel for you, Cara! I used to hate sewing my daughters' shoes in case I wrecked them and I can remember fishing inside the drawstring area for the string when one of younger dd's friends thought it would be funny to pull one end long. Sigh! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VBee Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Talking about messing around with pointe shoes, I wondered whether anyone has ever tried modifying their pointe shoes to make them fit better? I only ask because I'm pretty sure that my feet fall somewhere in between regular sizes. In the past I had an old pair of Gamba shoes and wanted to try them again, so I found what I thought was the right size online and ordered (I know this was a silly risk, but I couldn't find any Gamba stockists locally). However after breaking them in a little they turned out to be a bit too big . I've since had a pair half a size smaller, which seem to do the job, but I do feel that they would be better if they were a little longer. I still have the slightly too big shoes, and it seems such a waste that they're just sat in a cupboard not being used. Does anyone have any tips on adjusting pointe shoes? I don't mind if I ruin them experimenting as they're of no use at the moment anyway, i'm just not quite sure where to start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flit and float Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Pointe Shoes, Tips & Tricks is full of all sorts of ways of modifying shoes.... It says you can unpick/cut the waist seam (the seam running up the side from the sole to the drawstring casing) overlap the excess material & darn it back together ti make the back bit of the shoe shorter. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VBee Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Flit and float that sounds exactly like what I need to do! Is 'Pointe Shoes, Tips & Tricks' a website or a book? Would you need to unpick the drawstring casing along the top too? Or double it back on itself above the waist seam, or cut the drawstring casing and stitch that back together to fit to the new size? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flit and float Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 It's a book, the picture appears to have cut through the drawstring casing so I'm guessing you'd need to stitch it in place just in front of the cut so you could tighten the front? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cara in NZ Posted March 17, 2015 Author Share Posted March 17, 2015 One more tip re drawstrings – I have since thought that rather than snipping holes at intervals in the casing until I found them, it would be better to snip once behind the heel and pull the whole drawstring out, then thread back in both directions from there. Another possible idea is to forget the drawstrings and sew elastic across the top of the foot to pull the shoe together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucinda Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 "Pointe shoes: tips and tricks" by Angela Reinhardt is an fantastic book. I followed her instructions and lengthened 5 pairs of pointe shoes at the heel as DD's feet had grown 5mm, saved myself a fortune! I see it is now available as an e-book too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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