DIY Monogram Suede Baby Booties

with StripFlock® Pro Heat Transfer Vinyl

Have you ever seen a plain suede purse, jacket, or pair of shoes and thought to yourself- I wonder if I could decorate that with heat transfer vinyl? Well, the short answer is- YES, but you’ll need to take extra caution. The long answer explains what I mean by “extra caution” and we’ll get into that in just a sec. By the end of this post you’ll be ready to give suede a go!

The start of any project is the same- cut and weed your HTV. I’m using StripFlock® Pro HTV because I love the fuzzy texture on top of something already soft like suede.

Cutting StripFlock Pro heat transfer vinyl with the Cricut MakerWeeding StripFlock Pro heat transfer vinyl with a Siser Weeder

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before applying the heat transfer vinyl, I tested for heat sensitivity on the bottom of one suede boot with my iron on the “Cotton Blend” setting which is 2 settings below the highest setting on my iron. Normally, we recommend applying StripFlock Pro with a higher setting like the the cotton/linen setting, but because suede is actually just another form of leather and leather is almost always heat sensitive, I decided to start with a lower temperature. If you’re using a heat press, I’d suggest keeping your temperature between 270°F – 280°F to avoid scorch marks.

Suede leather baby booties from AmazonTesting suede for heat sensitivity with a home iron

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even with a low temperature, you still face another obstacle for suede appearing discolored-  the pressure that has to be applied. Suede and faux suede have a nap to the fabric that can get pressed down and may appear lighter in color. You can see exactly where the corner of my iron was in the picture above and on the right. In most cases, you can go back over the area with your fingers to rub away the lines and re-fluff the fibers until you forget they ever existed.

Before pressing though, you’ll want to stuff the shoe with a heat transfer pillow so the application area is higher than the seams and becomes one smooth surface. Afterwards you can center the HTV, place a heat transfer cover sheet over everything and press for 15-20 seconds. For more information on heat transfer pillows, watch this video!

Suede baby booties ready to be ironed onIroning a StripFlock Pro HTV monogram on suede baby booties

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peel away StripFlock Pro’s carrier while hot and re-fluff suede’s fibers like I mentioned previously.

StripFlock Pro's carrier can be peeled hot

Repeat everything on the second suede boot, and that’s all there is to it!

Custom suede baby booties monogrammed with StripFlock Pro heat transfer vinyl

The secrets to ironing on suede are out of the bag! Keep them just a click away when you pin the image below to your Pinterest boards.

Customizing suede baby booties is simple with Siser® heat transfer vinyl! Get all our tips for ironing HTV on suede in today's Siser Blog post, so you can make your own pair!