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Doodle-Stitching: Fresh & Fun Embroidery for Beginners

The New Crewel: Exquisite Designs in Contemporary Embroidery

Punchneedle Embroidery: 40 Folk Art Designs

Step out in style with these made-to-order canvas shoes.

Decorating your sneakers with a bouncing ball motif is the perfect way to add a little extra spring to your step. This project provides:

Step-by-step instructions
A complete list of everything you’ll need
Full-size design templates to trace

Getting Started

Heavy canvas can be a difficult surface to embroider. It bunches up as you stitch, and it can be so thick that it’s difficult to get the needle through. Your fingers will thank you if you use a rubber or leather thimble to help push the needle in and out of the sides of your shoes.

Transferring a Design

There are many methods for transferring an embroidery design or pattern to your fabric, including iron-on transfers, transfer mesh, carbon paper, or placing a light source under an image and tracing the image freehand onto the fabric.

Whatever method you choose, it’s important to first preshrink the fabric by washing and drying it the same way that you’ll care for the finished piece. Then you should press the fabric because it needs to be wrinkle-free before it’s hooped. Since marks from some transfer tools become permanent when ironed, it’s best to press your fabric before transferring a design to it.

Special Stitch

Split Stitch

On the front of the fabric, make a small stitch that’s twice as long as the desired finished stitch, from A to B (see figure 1). Bring the needle up through the center of the stitch, at C, to split the floss in half. Make another long stitch on the surface, and then split it, to continue the line of stitching.