A few days ago I bought a pair of insanely cute ballet flats for Haven, and even though they're the right size, she had a hard time keeping them on because her feet are quite narrow. Not wanting to let these shoes sit in her closet unworn, I thought I would take a stab at fixing the problem myself.
A strap across the top of the shoe seemed like a good solution, but without black elastic on hand, only white, I went went with what I had. I took some 1/2"-inch double wide black bias tape, stitched it together at the sides making a casing, and cut some 1/4"-inch wide elastic and inserted it into the casing.
I made the length of the casing about twice the length of the elastic so that it would ruffle up, and then I stitched it across at either end of the casing, catching the ends of the elastic, to keep it in place. Then I wedged the shoe onto my sewing machine, and after some contortions I was able to slowly push it through and stitch the strap on. I had to crank the wheel on my machine by hand to make sure it would go through the sides of the shoe without breaking my needle.
And voila, a shoe that will look cute and will also stay on her feet as she runs around at school and on the playground.
Because every 8 year old girl needs sequin covered zebra stripe ballet flats for school, right? Right.
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