Hi everyone! It’s Kim Lapacek from Persimon Dreams with you today. I don’t know about you but for me, the end of school is getting near. A little boy in my daughter’s kindergarten class informed me that there are only 17 days left – EEK! It’s time to get some gifts for teacher made! Today I will show you show to create this fabric ballet keepsake for someone special
But before we get to the teacher – we have our end of the year dance recital. My girls are SO LUCKY to have an amazing dance teacher – Ms. Erin. We absolutely adore her! Not only does she teach the kids to dance but she teaches them to be good people.
“Toe Shoes” Details:
Ballet Keepsake Supplies:
HeatnBond® Inkjet Transfer Sheets for Light Fabric
Pressing Paper
Aurifil Thread- 50 wt Aurifil 2205 & 2210
Fabric of your choice (need a piece 12.5 by 1
Ballet Keepsake Fabric Transfer Art Instructions:
I wanted to make her a special gift this year. Right away, I knew I was going to play with the HeatNBond®’s Inkjet Transfer Sheets. I found a free image of ballet toe shoes on the internet that I could print onto the HeatnBond® Inkjet Transfer Sheets for light fabric. The image printed onto an 8.5″ x 11″ transfer sheet. I had the perfect music/ephemera themed fabric that I wanted to transfer the toe shoe image onto. I cut a piece of the music/ephemera fabric about 12.5″ x 15″ for the base of the quilt.
The transfer sheets are really easy to use. Carefully peel the paper off the back of the image. Lay the image down on the fabric you want the image transferred to. Before ironing it down, cover the transfer with a pressing paper sheet . Evenly press a hot iron onto the pressing sheet paper to secure the transfer sheet to the fabric.
Squeal! Seriously!? How amazing does this look?! I’m beyond happy with how the toe shoes transferred onto the fabric. The next step is to quilt the piece.
Quilting the “Toe Shoes” Piece
I started quilting the piece with 50 wt Aurifil 2205 and part of the way through realized I needed to add a bit more of a golden thread for more highlights so I added some 50 wt Aurifil 2210.
The toe shoes aren’t the easiest to see with all the fabric details so before I quilted the piece I did pull up the image on my iPad to refer to it as needed. It helped clarify some lines and shapes for me.
And here it is! Quilted and artsy! I outlined the shoes and then did a swirly free motion design all around the borders. At first, I wasn’t sure if I loved the quilting on the shoes so I may have panicked and made as second version – this time without quilting the transfer image.
The piece on the left is the toe shoes without quilting over them and the piece on the right has quilting over it. I ultimately decided to stick with my original quilted piece to finish it off but I still plan on framing the un-quilted piece as well.
To finish it off the piece was wrapped around a wood frame and stapled on. I thought it needed a non traditional finish and hope the girls teacher will love it!
The Dancers
Before I leave you I have to share just a few pictures of my beautiful girls dancing in previous recitals. Capri is the middle girl with my other daughter Cedi on the right.
Pip is the little girl with both hands up! This was the only time she ever did that – normally she just started to play with the other girls hair in the final pose.
And finally – Pip dancing with her teacher Ms. Erin. Pip had been all alone not dancing on a stage full of dancing students. Ms. Erin saw her – scooped her up and started dancing with her! Definitely one of my favorite dance recital moments!
