Darning

Just before half term S was told she could go en pointe at ballet. She was so pleased and we were very proud of her. During half term she went for her pointe ballet shoe fitting which took nearly an hour as it is serious stuff, so it would seem - a bit like the wand chooses the wizard, if you’ve read Harry Potter. Her beautiful shoes are Grishko.

I am used to sewing on ribbons and elastics but I did blanche somewhat when I found out the toes had to be darned. (Some ballet schools apply leather but S’s teacher prefers darning).

We had a photo of how to do it - none of the internet tutorials seemed to do it this way which S preferred- and today I took the plunge. The scary thing is you only get one chance. By half way through I was beginning to enjoy it. 7 hours later and 2 toes are darned and I have 2 blisters that I didn’t notice when I was sewing. S is babysitting. I hope she likes them when she gets home.