Free ballet SVG files

Slender shapes that still cut

A dancer on pointe is all long thin lines, which is hard on a blade. These silhouettes are drawn with that in mind: when a dancer is 100 mm tall her ankles are about 3 mm wide and her wrists a little over 2 mm, and each pointed toe and fingertip is rounded off instead of ending in a sliver. That is fine for vinyl and iron-on at 80 mm tall and above.

In card, cut the dancers at 120 mm or more and lift them with a spatula, arms first. For something sturdier, the tiny dancer in her bell-shaped tutu has nothing narrower than 4 mm, and the shoes and the tutu on its hanger are solid shapes that suit felt, glitter card and thin wood.

Ribbons, buns and no faces

On the hanging shoes and the heart, each ribbon runs from a shoe to the bow or to the other ribbon, so nothing dangles free and the design lifts in one piece. On the pair of slippers and the single shoe the ribbons curl away and end in the air, as satin does, but they are between 3 and 4 mm wide, so they hold their shape. No dancer has a face. The bun, the line of the neck and the flat tutu are enough to say ballerina, and a blank silhouette can stand for any child in the class.

How to open the files

• Cricut Design Space: choose Upload, pick the SVG, and add it to the canvas. Set the width you want; the shape is already welded.
• Silhouette Studio: Designer Edition and above open the SVG. The free Basic Edition does not, so open the DXF instead.
• LightBurn, xTool Creative Space and Glowforge: import the SVG, then set the layer to cut, score or engrave.
• Inkscape, Illustrator and Affinity: open the SVG. It is a plain filled path, so you can recolour it, add a stroke or combine it with your own work.
• Printing or sublimation: use the PNG, which has a transparent background.

Each design page lists the file’s narrowest part at seven sizes, so you can tell whether it will survive at the size you plan to cut.

Questions