I have a boudoir photoshoot coming up in a couple of weeks, and as one of the things I’ve always wanted is a photo of me on pointe, I decided this would be a good opportunity.

However, none of my corsets are ballet pink. So I embarked upon a project (see how I get craft into everything?!)

First, you make sure you have all the necessary bits and pieces in one room… ballet shoes, dye, salt, sponge brush and a waterproof covering for your table. And GLOVES. Rubber gloves.

Then you mix your dye – this was the scary part, black is quite drastic…

Then stuff your shoes with newspaper or plastic bags to protect the inside and brush the dye on, being careful to cover all the folds of satin, but not to get the shoes too wet. 

They should then look like this and you can leave them to dry.

What I had not foreseen (and after I threw the dye away, of course) was that the colour would soak in and lighten while drying. So now I have this rather lovely blueish grey colour pair of pointes, and I can’t decide whether to re-dye black, or leave them like this. Thoughts, please? (on the basis they’ll be paired with dark burgundy and turquoise/black striped corsets…)