I picked up a pair of
brand new childrens black ballet slippers at a yard sale for .25¢ a few weeks ago. I had remembered seeing some ballet slippers
somewhere on the web where someone had taken a pair and made them look old. I wanted to try my hand at it... and for .25¢ I couldn't resist. Firstly, I went over the black slippers with gold paint~

Using what I had on hand in my large
stash of stuff... I made some ruffles using some off-white fabric. I wet the fabric and then just squirted some black paint onto it and began rolling it around in my hands until it was black.

I wanted to add some black pom-poms... and of course, I only had white ones. So, I did the same thing to the white pom-poms to make them black.

I used cardstock inserts which I covered with muslin fabric along the sides and the bottom to stiffen up the ballet shoes a little bit. Then I just dirtied them up with some watered down paint, giving them the appearance they had been worn for years in different ballet performances. I had intended to put them under a cloche-- but for the life of me, I couldn't find where I put the wooden base that went with it...... then I thought, a large jar filled with mica flakes. Um, where are my mica flakes? I betcha next to the cloche base.....