Both soft and flexible, handmade baby shoes are ready to keep little feet protected! Using just two fat quarters of fabric, baby shoes make a great stash busting project, or you can mix-and-match designs with Fill-a-Yard™ to make multiple pairs from one yard. 

Protect tiny, precious toes with a pair of made-with-love baby shoes. Create a pair that matches a dress, bonnet or onesie. This is the perfect hand-made gift for a baby shower, birthday or sweet surprise. Want to match your mini-me? Check out this post about making your own pair of espadrilles with Spoonflower fabric. We know you’re excited to make (and see) these cute slippers, so let’s get started!

Choose The Right Baby Shoe Fabric and Design

When choosing a fabric, stick to lightweight woven fabrics like Organic Cotton Sateen (the fabric we used for this tutorial!), Cotton Poplin or Lightweight Cotton Twill. Thicker fabrics are more difficult to work with, especially when you’re working with multiple layers. For a pair of shoes with a little stretch, Modern Jersey or Organic Cotton Knit will do the trick.

The Spoonflower Marketplace is home to hundreds of thousands of designs. To help you find the best one for this project we have some tips:

  • Choose the right scale in your favorite design: You’ll want to choose a small scaled design. At the largest size, a finished baby shoe is only 5″ long x 2.5″ wide—so smaller scaled designs will shine more on your shoes than larger ones.
  • Consider a ditsy design: A ditsy design is small in scale, and the design motifs are usually scattered or random rather than being ordered in a definable pattern like rows or stripes.
  • Preview your design on a swatch first: Open the page where you can order your design and in the ‘size’ section of the page, select ‘Swatch 8″ x 8″‘. This will give you a better idea of what parts of the design will fit within your shoe pattern pieces.

Now that we’ve gone through the tips, let’s go through the steps!

Materials to make baby shoes lay on a wooden surface.

Materials To Make DIY Baby Shoes

  • 1 Fat quarter of 1/4 yard of fabric for the outer fabric—We’re using the design Happy Pears by wanart
  • 1 Fat quarter of 1/4 yard of fabric for the lining fabric—We’re using the design Dunes – Geometric Waves by heatherdutton
  • 1 Fat quarter for the sole fabric—Faux leather will provide a nice grip for a standing or walking baby but you can also use Tulip® Puffy™ Dimensional Fabric Paint to create a fun non-slip sole pattern!
  • Spoonflower’s free baby shoe pattern—Available for sizes 0-15 months
  • 1/4 yard of fusing lightweight interfacing
  • 1/4″ wide braided elastic—the length will be determined by the shoe size below, but will require no more than 10″
  • Thread
  • Pins (applique pins work really well for me)
  • Iron
  • Fabric scissors
  • Sewing machine – We’re using our BERNINA B350
  • 1/4 yard fusible batting (for extra cushion, optional)—We’re using Fairfield Fusi-Boo Fusible Batting
  • (Optional) Corner pusher
  • (Optional) Tailor’s ham
  • (Optional) 2 Safety pins—they’re helpful when working with elastic

Sewing Tip:

All seam allowances are 1/4” unless otherwise noted

How To Make DIY Baby Shoes

Part 1: Prepare Your Materials

Step 1: Cut out your paper pattern pieces

Select your paper pattern page from the PDF based on the final shoe size you’ll be making. Then print out the page and cut out the pattern pieces. When printing your pattern, make sure to select Actual Size on your printing options. To double-check that the pattern printed at the correct scale, make sure the test square measures 2”x2”.

Step 2: Cut out your fabric to your paper

lay out your pattern pieces on the fabric and cut out your pattern pieces. We suggest making a mark at the center of the top and bottom of the toe and sole with a washable fabric marker. When you’re done cutting, you should have the following pieces:

Toe:

  • 2 outer fabric
  • 2 lining fabric
  • 2 interfacing

Sole:

  • 2 outer fabric
  • 2 lining fabric
  • 2 interfacing

Heel:

  • 2 outer fabric
  • 2 lining fabric
  • 2 interfacing

Cut two pieces of elastic for each pair of shoes using the guide below:

  • US Size 1 – 3 ¾” long
  • US Size 2 – 4” long
  • US Size 3 – 4 ¼” long
  • US Size 4 – 4 ½” long
  • US Size 5 – 4 ¾” long

Cut out pieces of fabric and interfacing to make baby shoes lay on a wooden surface with a pair of fabric scissors and a blue tin of pins.
Here’s a look at all of your cut out fabric and interfacing pieces

Optional Step 3: Trim the batting

If using the optional batting, trim your sole pieces an additional 1/4” from the edge so they’re slightly smaller than your outer fabric sole pieces.

A woman is trimming batting in an oval shape,

Step 4: Attach the interfacing

Iron on the fusible interfacing to the wrong side of the outer pieces for the toe, heel and sole following the manufacturer’s instructions. If you’re adding the optional fusible batting to the sole for extra cushion, iron it in place on the wrong side of the sole. The batting should be sandwiched between the outer sole fabric and interfacing. 

Six white pieces of interfacing lay on an ironing board.

Make Both Shoes At Once

From Part 2 through the end of this tutorial are steps to make one shoe at a time. You can complete both shoes—just repeat each step for the other shoe after making the first one. We’ll remind you along the way!

Part 2: Create The Heel

Step 5: Stitch the fabric and interfacing together

Pin the right sides together of the outer heel and lining heel, and sew the longest edge (labeled A on your pattern). Press the seam open and trim about 1/8” off each side of the seam. 

A rectangle piece of fabric lays design side down with two pins and either horizontal end. The container holding the pins is nearby.
A woman is stitching the rectangle piece of fabric that was pinned.
A woman is ironing the seams open of a rectangle piece of fabric using an iron and tailor's ham.
A tailor’s ham helps when pressing curves!

Step 6: Fold and press the fabric

Fold the heel in half (wrong sides should be together now) and press the seam.

A woman is ironing a folded piece of fabric with an iron and tailor's ham.

Step 7: Create the elastic casing

Sew a 3/8″ seam from the folded edge to create a casing for the elastic.

A woman is stitching an elastic casing on a piece of fabric using her sewing machine.

Step 8: Insert the elastic

Attach a safety pin to one edge of the elastic. Insert the safety pin and elastic into one open end of the casing. Once all of the elastic is inside, secure the unpinned end of the elastic with a small stitch to hold in place. Push the elastic through the rest of the casing and once you have reached the edge, secure the other side with a small stitch. The elastic for the heel should now be secure! Repeat steps 6 through 8 on the second heel. 

A piece of elastic with a safety pin on the end is near a piece of fabric with an elastic casing.
Place a small safety pin at one end of your elastic to help slide it through the casing.
A women is threading the elastic through the casing with her hands,
Slide your elastic through the casing with the help of your safety pin.
An elastic piece of fabric lays on a wooden surface.
Stitch the ends and your heel is now finished!

Part 3: Create the Toe

Step 9: Organize your toe pieces

Lay the finished heel piece on top of the main toe piece (the finished elastic edge should face towards the center of the toe piece). Now it’s time to create a baby shoe sandwich: place the toe lining piece right sides together on top of the heel piece.

Here’s what your baby shoe sandwich should look like:

  • Bottom layer – outer toe piece, printed side up
  • Middle layer – finished heel piece
  • Top layer – lining toe piece, printed side down
Materials to make the baby shoe's toe are pinned together.
Place your heel piece between your outer toe and lining toe pieces.

Step 10: Stitch the heel and toe pieces together

To complete this step we’re going to break it down into two parts.

Part 10.1 Stitch to the center of the toe piece. Starting from the far left side, stitch to the center of the toe piece, making sure to catch both the toe piece layers and the heel piece.

A woman is stitching one side of the baby shoe heel one side of the baby shoe toe piece.
Stitch from the left to the center of your pinned pieces, then remove the fabric from your sewing machine.

Part 10.2 Finish attaching the heel to the toe pieces. Remove the fabric from your machine and create a second toe/heel sandwich for the other end of the heel. To do this, pin the unsewn end of your heel between outer toe and lining toe piece. Stitch in place. These stitches should meet up with the stitches you made in part 10.1.

Two hands are holding the baby shoe toe pieces that are sewn so far. Sewing pins indicate the other half that needs to be sewn.
Here’s what your shoe looks like as we get ready to sew the other side of the heel piece to the other end of the toe pieces.

Step 11: Press the shoe piece

Turn the top of the shoe right side out. Delicately press the top of the toe piece and heel if necessary. We recommend using a press cloth during this step! Repeat steps 10 and 11 to create the second shoe top.

The sewn together heel and toe pieces are being pressed on a tailor's ham.

Part 4: Attach the Sole

Step 12: Organize your sole pieces

Place the sole fabric that you want to be on the bottom of the shoe right side down on top of the shoe top. Next, place the lining sole fabric right side up underneath the completed shoe top (be sure to line up any center lines during this process).

Fabric pieces for the bottom of the shoe are between the finished heel and toe pieces of the baby shoe.
Two hands are holding the shoe bottoms pieces in an order to indicate their layers before being sewn together.

Step 13: Pin your sole pieces

Pin in between center lines and leave a 1” opening on one side. For thicker fabrics like Lightweight Cotton Twill, we recommend leaving a 1 1/2″ opening. 

The baby shoe bottom pieces are pinned together.

Sewing Tip:

It’s best to leave this gap towards the front of the toe or the back of the heel–avoid the side seam, if you can.

Step 14: Stitch your sole pieces together

Sew all the way around with a 1/4” seam, and then trim only the sewn edges to 1/8”. Repeat steps 12 through 14 for the second shoe. 

A woman trims the excess fabric outside the line of stitching on the baby shoe bottom.

Part 5: Finish the Baby Shoe

Step 15: Turn the shoe right side out

Now it’s time to see how everything has turned out so far. Turn your shoe so it’s right side out—you may need a corner pusher to complete this process

Step 16: Hand stitch the opening close

Fold in the lining fabric and the outer fabric at the unfinished opening and pin. Hand stitch the opening closed.

A sewing pin sewing the baby shoe bottom and top.
A women hand sews the opening of a baby shoe closed.

Step 17: Press the baby shoe

Press any wrinkles and all finished seams. Repeat steps 12 through 17 for the other shoe.

A women presses a baby shoe with an iron and tailor's cloth.

Pairs of fabric baby shoes sit on a wooden surface.

Frequently Asked Questions

How would I care for these fabric baby shoes?
Following the fabric care instructions, you can machine wash them on a cool gentle setting with like colors.
What is the size of a finished DIY baby shoe?
Our templete is designed in shoes 0-15 months. Here’s a break down of each measurement:
Size 1 (0-3 months) = 3.75” length
Size 2 (3-6 months) = 4” length
Size 3 (6-9 months) = 4.25” length
Size 4 (9-12 months) = 4.5” length
Size 5 (12-15 months) = 4.75-5” length
What type of design should I use to make baby shoes?
We suggest a small-scale ditsy design due to the size of baby shoes. Since they are small, we want your shoes to look great and your selected design to stand out.

Want to complete the look?

These shoes are too cute to just stand alone, check out these 6 DIY projects to make a matching piece to your adorable shoes!
See the Projects