My daughter used to dance in high school, now she is in graduate school and I was wondering what to do with all her old costumes. I have decided to implement them into a dance quilt for her.

I have done a frog wall hanging by finding a picture of a frog and using graph paper to make my frog. It was very good..

Anyhow I thought about doing the same for dance shoes too. I need Jazz shoes, Ballet slippers, Pointe Shoes, and hip hop shoes. I would love to see if there are patterns already out there however. Has anyone ever seen (or done) anything like this?

Yes, I was thinking various shoes with the costume piece she danced in, I know it won't be easy as much of the fabric is not cotton but stretchy and even satin.. but I think it would be beautiful if I can get my idea on paper.

I have no suggestions, but will love seeing what you come up with! It sounds like it would be such a beautiful quilt, and a good way to use those expensive costumes again!! (I know how much they are, my daughters dance too!)

The stretchy fabric is easier to work with if you add a soft iron-on stabilizer, like is used in tee-shirt quilts, before you cut out the pieces. This sounds like it will be a fun quilt and I hope you post pictures when you finish.

both of my daughters dance, and the costumes are quite expensive. When my youngest daughters duo partner had to move away I made a quilt for her using pics of them in all of their duo costumes and then added her solo pics and assorted other dance pics. I embelished with bits and pieces of costumes around the pics. In the first borders I embroideried all of the dance show names and dates, in the second border i embroideres all of her solo titles and then all of their duo dance titles. In the last border i embroidered random dance terms. It made her and her mom and even her dad cry when the opened the gift box. I didn't take even one pic of the quilt and it makes me sad that I didn't. Oh well live and learn. I asked her mom to send me a pic but that was three years ago so i guess i'm not getting it.

Love to see the quilt and let us know how and what you used to complete it.

This sounds lovely, oh how I wish you did have a picture..

Sounds great. Be sure to stablize the fabric. Good luck, I don't know of any patterns. Sorry, not much help.

If you still have her address, keep asking. We all get busy and fail to do things that we really did intend to do and then so much time passes, we just put it out of our mind.

YOU CAN BUY BALLERINA SHOE FABRIC AND FABRIC WITH BALLERINAS, ADULT AND CHILDREN.

Wow! I don't even want to think about how much money I spent on dance lessons, costumes, shoes, ballet camp, etc. My daughter started dancing when she was 4 and continued all the way through college. She studied ballet, tap, jazz and modern and performed with a regional ballet company for most of those years, going to lessons every day of the week. For regular recitals in the spring we usually had at least 4 or 5 new costumes each year that we had to purchase as well as many pairs of shoes throughout the year (especially pointe shoes which were extremely expensive and wore out very quickly). I somehow ended up as President of the Board of Directors that managed the ballet company and served and volunteered on the board and for the dance company for many years. I also designed and sewed many costumes for the principal dancers (male and female) as well as the corps de ballet. I still have some of the patterns and books that I used back then. My DD went on to study Musical Theatre and Dance as a Performing Arts major in college. She worked for a theatre company in NYC before we moved down to Georgia. When we got down here she decided to go back to school to become a Massage Therapist because there weren't as many opportunities as there were in NYC for actors and dancers. She is 30 now and just found out that she's expecting a baby in March. Hilary said that if it's a girl she expects me to be a "Ballet Grandma" because I already know how to do it :) The idea of a quilt made from the costumes is a great idea as a wall quilt. I don't think the toulle and sequins would be very cuddly for a bed quilt though!!! Please show us all when you complete it. I can't wait to see it!!!