Lifehacks for a beautiful heel

Let’s see how dancers with disappearing heel use to fix a bad fitting heel of their pointe shoes. (What's disappearing heel? Find that out in our post) 

The main purpose is to somehow deal with this weird extra fabric in the heel, that appers when you are en pointe. 

Here are some ideas:

♥ Let's start with the common and obvious solution: this is what the elastic ribbons are for. Take a strong thin elastic ribbon fold it in a loop and sew around the ankle, then fasten it to the binding of the heel. When you are on pointe, the elastic ribbon will pull the heel fabric higher and the bulge will flatten. NB: avoid stitches on the Achilles tendon.

♥ Sew a broad transparent elastic ribbon in a slightly different way - fasten it deep into the heel – it will provide elasticity over the entire length. You can make a loop out of it, or you can sew it crosswayat an acute angle (swipe to see). Tip: these elastics are quite harsh. When sewn the inside of the shoe, they often scratch and disturb, but they can be stitched from the outside of a pointe shoe - they are almost invisible, you can only see them if you look at the pointe shoe from a close distance.

♥ If the heel is a little short, you can lengthen it by unripping the binding. The R-class brand, in their RC-17 model, did it for you already –their pointe-shoes are made with the un-stitched binding at the heel.

♥ You can adjust the heel part by doing the following:

1. remove part of the fabric from under the binding (by unripping and sewing it back), or

2. cut out part of the material from the middle of the heel. One of my clients, after removing some extra fabric, inserts a "patch" from the waistband instead. I really like the result! Of course, not every ballerina is as skillful sewer and is willing to spend time on it...