Princess has been taking dance lessons this year. Although our prices are much more reasonable here than in a metro area (gasp), it still has not been an inexpensive process. There are the monthly lesson costs, the class gear (taps, ballet shoes, leotards etc), costumes and recital gear. Don’t get me started on the fact that we don’t even get a single free ticket to the recital.
Of course when I asked at the beginning of the year the studio expressed no preference for what color ballet shoes Princess had to have. Being a typical 6 year old girl she wanted the pink ones.
Fine, we got the pink ones.
Then in October when they ordered the costumes, they told us they had decided on black ballet shoes for the recital. Ugh.
Well, 2 weeks ago she decided both of her shoes were too tight. Mind you, this is 3 weeks before the recital. That means she needed two new pairs of shoes that she would only wear for 3 weeks! Yes, that is only $30 ($15 a pair at Payless) but I’d rather not pay that for just a couple of weeks of use. Even if she takes dance next year (Which is in doubt-we love to dance, we don’t like having to do the steps someone else tells us to do. What can I say-independent women in my family), her feet will have grown by the end of the summer and any shoes we purchase now won’t fit.
Luckily for us there is a “free” box there at the studio where everyone tosses in their outgrown shoes, and anyone may take ones they find that fit. I was able to find both a pair of taps and ballet shoes that fit. Of course I tossed her outgrown ones in for someone else. The down side-the ballet shoes were again pink.
Well, I did what any frugalite would do. I decided to dye them. Now when I was in college I specifically remember being able to buy special spray paint at shoe stores where you could spray over and change the color of your shoes. In fact, I bought beige character shoes (ie tap shoes without the taps that theatre types wear for musicals etc) and used that sort of paint to paint them white for my wedding. I wanted to be able to stand and dance in them without killing my feet. But when I went to look for such a thing in good old 2008, I couldn’t find it. What I did find was black shoe dye meant to cover scuffs etc at Wally World for $2.50. I figured it would do.
To start with I stuffed the shoes full of newspaper to get the leather as tight as I could. Then I soaked some cotton balls in acetone nailpolish remover and rubbed down the surface of the shoes to take off that sort of glossy finish. Learn from my experience and pay special attention to all the seams and edges if you do this-I had to cover up some spots that wouldn’t take the dye with a sharpie. (I love sharpies!)
I had to apply* 4 coats of the dye. The first coat was scary-It looked awful. I mean really horrible. I was worried that I had made a terrible mistake-but I tried to console myself with the fact that if it didn’t work I’d just be back where I started-needing to buy a new pair in black.
The second coat (several hours later) came out much better-albeit still streaky, and I knew it was going to be all right. After the 4th coat dried, I used some black shoe polish and it fixed them right up.
If you get really close you can see the difference between Princess’s dyed shoes and the store bought black ones, but they look great from stage-and cost about $13 less than buying the cheapest pair of new shoes.
*wear gloves!
Julie says
I can so relate to this post! My princess is also in dance this year and she told me last week her tap shoes were hurting her feet. She only has 3 weeks until the recital. I guess I am the mean mom and I am going to make her wear them until the end. I swear we even purchased them big at the beginning of the year!
Lisa says
I just had to comment on the ballet shoes. I once colored my dd’s pink ones with a black permanent marker. It worked, of course I nearly passed out from the fumes but , darn it, I wasn’t buying shoes for one dance in a recital, LOL.
Jerry says
Our 3-y.o. daughter just had her last ballet class last weekend (we are moving before the big recital, which leads us to save us a ton of money on costumes and additional shoes!). She will miss the class, but I think we will have some insurance that she’s going to want to continue once we are in Europe. Hopefully it’s cheap over there… Great job dyeing the shoes! That’s truly frugal and smart.
Jerry
http://www.leads4insurance.com
Rebecca says
Ha! I did not know about the special paint at shoe stores, but we just had the spray painting character shoes experience.
The entire “Castle Staff” in B & the B has to wear tan character shoes and we found out like a week and a half before the show. Well, Spokane dance stores don’t have that many pairs of tan character shoes in stock. DD ordered a pair for $40, but then the costume lady told her to go dig through the black ones. Sure enough, at the bottom of the final box, she found an old broken down pair that fit her. But who cares? It’s $40 she gets to keep! The costume lady spray painted them for her and she’s good to go.
So thanks for the info. š And now I will be checking all the thrift stores for character shoes in any color, size 10 N.
Jenn @ Frugal Upstate says
Lisa-Honestly-sharpies were my next line of defense if the dye didn’t work.
Jerry-I think parts of the whole dance thing are a rip off. Oh well, the things we do cause we love them.
Rebecca-Character shoes are pretty comfy. Glad she was able to save the money.
Anonymous says
We have a slightly different version of this problem. Our teenage son plays cello in his school symphony, and is required to wear a black suit, white shirt, black bow tie and black dress shoes. We’re on his second set of all of the above and had to let the hem out several inches on the pants, buy a new white shirt, and he has to squeeze into a pair of too tight shoes. He is unusually tall and skinny so suits are hard to find, let alone on ebay, by thrifting, or exchange with previous students. This year’s suit will be worn three times…Christmas concert, wedding, June concert and that’s it, unless he needs a dark suit for his semi-formal later in June. Any ideas anybody!
Thanks
Christine
disney says
Lol so smart I think I might do the same. But I kinda wanna collect ballet shoes and
also I have huge feet that grow fast (y) lol š good luck with ur kid thou.