Yep, you can embroider your favorite pair of Converse to create totally custom shoes!
Y’all, this might be the coolest project I’ve ever taken on. This birthday present for my kid who’s David Bowie’s biggest fan and only ever wears black-on-black Converse on her feet may have destroyed all sensation in my right index fingertip (mental note: thimbles put the “fun” in functional fingers!), but it was worth it for how great these shoes turned out.
The process is long and tedious–and awful on your fingers if you don’t wear a thimble!–but it’s also very easy, absolutely suitable for a beginner sewist. Here’s how you can make your own custom pair of Converse!
Materials
To embroider Converse, you will need the following supplies:
- canvas shoes. The canvas material is the important part here, so any canvas shoe will do. I embroidered on a pair of monochrome black Converse high-tops, but I’m also kind of eyeing the grey ones for myself.
- self-adhesive water-soluble embroidery paper. This is often referred to as “stick n’ stitch” paper, because you can stick it down to a surface just like a sticker, and then embroider directly on top of it. When you’re finished, the paper rinses away with water. You can usually print on this paper with an inkjet printer, as well, which is so great for transferring more detailed designs. If you don’t have an inkjet printer but want to make a more elaborate design, you can use regular printer paper instead, but you will have to pick all the bits of paper out of your stitching afterwards, which is a pain.
- embroidery floss and needle. Two strands of embroidery floss is perfect here. Use the sharpest hand-sewing needle you can get, and don’t forget a thimble!
Step 1: Place the template onto the shoe.
This step would have been easier for me if I owned an inkjet printer. For the lightning bolt design, I cut the overall design out of the adhesive paper, then drew on the color blocking details in pen. I tried a few methods for getting the “Rebel Rebel” cross-stitch design onto the Converse, including trying to draw a grid onto the adhesive paper (so time-consuming!) and trying to use the perforations in the adhesive paper as my stitching template (my poor myopic eyes!), but ultimately I just stuck the printer paper with the design printed onto it directly onto the Converse. It doesn’t have to be perfect as long as it gets done!
Step 2: Embroider Converse according to the pattern.
I used a running stitch, backstitch, cross stitch, and satin stitch for this project, with the backstitch being the most useful for the lightning bolt, and the cross stitch the only stitch I used for the “Rebel Rebel.” For the lightning bolt, I outlined each part in the color I wanted it to be using a backstitch. I used a satin stitch to fill the narrow blue and black color blocks, and more back stitching to fill the red lightning bolt.
I would not recommend a satin stitch for the lightning bolt, because the thread has to cover too much area. It’ll sag over time and be very vulnerable to breakage.
Below, you can see how I cross-stitched the “Rebel Rebel” design directly onto the printer paper pattern. I didn’t end up needing the adhesive paper that I’d already placed there, but it doesn’t add bulk to stitch through and it rinses away easily, so I left it:
Step 3: Remove the pattern paper.
To remove the water-soluble adhesive paper, just rinse the canvas under the faucet for a few minutes and it will come away. To remove the printer paper template, first tear away as much as you can, then soak the canvas until the paper is thoroughly waterlogged. That makes it easier to pick away the remaining paper bits under your stitching using tweezers. It will be a LOT easier to do if your pattern isn’t entirely cross-stitch, ugh!
Optionally, you can cover the back of your embroidery with fusible interfacing designed for exactly that, but I decided to leave the back of my stitching as-is. I didn’t put any knots into the floss, instead hiding the ends well inside the layers of canvas and padding, so it shouldn’t be uncomfortable, and I don’t *think* friction will be an issue, either. But the kid comes home from college for the summer in just a couple of weeks, so if it looks like the embroidery floss is becoming worn on the inside, I can always place interfacing down before it becomes a problem. If it happens, I’ll let you know!
David Bowie’s biggest fan LOVES her new kicks, so much so that the beloved bookshelf quilt is now in second place in the category of Favorite Gifts Made By Mom. Meanwhile, I’m thinking that I might like to embroider a Starry Night scene, or a trilobyte, or maybe Stonehenge on my very own pair of Converse!
Let me know in the Comments what YOU want to embroider on your Converse!
