If you don’t own Crocs or Croc-compatible shoes but still want to display some of the cute little PVC charms that are out there, here’s a little snap tab holder that will accept them. Five tabs will fit in a 4×4 embroidery frame.

If you have a punch that can cut through two layers of vinyl, they’re super-easy to make: just put a piece of vinyl at least 3″ x 4″ on the front and back of your stabilizer, and stitch out both colors of the design. Using the stitched guides, punch a big hole for the charm, little holes for the snaps, insert the snaps and you’re done. The holes in official Crocs are around 8mm, so if your punch is a little smaller or your vinyl is particularly rigid you’ll probably want to add a little “keyhole” slit from the top of the hole to get the charms in.

If you don’t have an 8mm(ish) open punch

If you need to pre-punch, it’s only a little more complicated. A good office hole punch can manage a single layer of most vinyls. Particularly thin/flexible ones may tend to get sucked down into the punch instead of punching cleanly so you’re actually better off with something thicker. Make five holes in a straight line, 3/4″ inch apart, on both the front and back vinyls. Stitch out the first color on the stabilizer, align the vinyl over the markings, and tape down one edge.

Unless you want to manually punch the stabilizer out afterward, use the tape as a hinge to lift up the vinyl and cut out a window now.

Flip the vinyl back down and tape it securely in place. (Painter’s tape is better for this but I don’t have any at the moment, and luckily these vinyls are fine with cellophane tape.) Flip the frame over and carefully align the backing vinyl to the front.

Now stitch out the main “design.” Remember that your bobbin thread will show! Take it out of the frame and trim close to the stitching, but not too close. My three-hole punch made a hole just barely far enough from the edge of the vinyl, so test on a scrap before you commit your fancy vinyls.

Now punch out the snap holes (or use an awl), insert the snaps, and you’re done.

[Shoe Charm Snap Tab (5-up)]

This is copyrighted by Silver Seams in the year noted in its URL, and licensed under Creative Commons’ CC-BY-SA. This basically means you’re free to sell items you make from it, provided you give reasonable attribution, and that if you modify it you’re required to share your changes with the world under the same license (the actual legal bits are in the link).

As with other free embroidery patterns here, the SVG file is included in the ZIP package so you can modify it in Inkscape and produce your own variations/sizes/etc.

Toss a coin to your stitcher! (Ko-Fi)