Sew Shoe Covers for Children – Quick & Easy Protection Against Dirty Shoes

If you have a toddler, you probably know the problem: one minute they are still walking through mud, sand or wet grass, and shortly afterwards they need to get back into the car. Especially with younger children who are still riding rear-facing, dirty shoes can quickly end up against the seat or backrest.

Of course, you could take the shoes off every single time. But for short car rides, I honestly find that a bit too much hassle. That’s why I made these simple shoe covers that I can quickly pull over my child’s shoes.

The covers are made with two layers of fabric. This means the coated side of the fabric is on both the outside and the inside, so they can simply be wiped clean with a damp cloth after use.

What You Need

For one pair of shoe covers, you will need:

• raincoat fabric or another coated fabric

• 2 pieces of elastic, mine are approx. 25 cm long and 8 mm wide

• matching sewing thread

• fabric scissors or a rotary cutter

• fabric clips

• a safety pin or elastic threader

• a small dessert bowl, cup or another round object

• tissue paper

I use raincoat fabric for my shoe covers. My fabric is waterproof, easy to wipe clean and still nice and lightweight. Raincoat fabric is also available in lots of lovely prints for children.

Would you rather work with a ready-made sewing pattern?
My shoe cover sewing pattern includes several sizes and can be printed out directly. You can download it here: Shoe Cover

Cutting the Fabric

For one shoe cover, you need four fabric pieces measuring:

27 × 15 cm

For one pair, you therefore need to cut a total of eight pieces.

The 0.7 cm seam allowance is already included in these measurements. The size shown here fits shoes up to approximately EU size 24/25. Depending on how wide or bulky the shoes are, this may vary slightly.

If your fabric has a directional print like mine, make sure that all motifs are facing the correct way when cutting.

Tip: If you are using a solid-coloured fabric or a fabric without a directional print, you can make the cutting process even easier. In this case, you can place the fabric on the fold along what will later become the bottom edge and cut the front and back as one piece. This means you only need two fabric pieces per shoe cover instead of four – one for the outer layer and one for the inner layer. The seam along the bottom edge is no longer necessary either.

Rounding the Corners

Place the fabric pieces together in matching pairs and round off the two bottom corners.

I simply used a small dessert bowl for this. A cup, glass or any other round object works just as well.

Trace the curve and cut the corners accordingly.

Sewing the Outer and Inner Shoe Cover

For the outer shoe cover, place two fabric pieces right sides together. The coated sides should be facing each other.

Sew along both side edges and the bottom edge using a straight stitch and a seam allowance of approximately 0.7 cm.

Leave the top edge open.

Sew the inner shoe cover in the same way. However, leave a turning opening of approximately 6–8 cm in one of the straight side seams.

Trim the seam allowance slightly around the curves so that they sit more neatly after turning.

Joining the Outer and Inner Shoe Cover

Turn the outer shoe cover right side out. Leave the inner shoe cover wrong side out for now.

Insert the outer shoe cover into the inner one. The coated sides of the fabric are now facing each other again, right sides together.

Clip the top edges together all the way around and sew them with a 0.7 cm seam allowance. Be sure to leave an opening of about 2–3 cm somewhere (this is where we’ll insert the elastic later)!

You can then turn the entire shoe cover through the turning opening in the inner layer.

Push the inner shoe cover inside the outer layer.

The coated side of the raincoat fabric is now visible both on the outside and on the inside of the finished cover.

Close the turning opening.

Sewing the Elastic Casing

Now all that is missing is the elastic.

Topstitch all the way around the upper edge, sewing approximately 1.5 cm below the top edge. This automatically creates a casing between the outer and inner layers.

My sewing machine initially had trouble feeding the raincoat fabric over the needle plate, even though I was already using a Teflon presser foot.

If you have the same problem, simply place tissue paper underneath the fabric and sew over it. Afterwards, the tissue paper can easily be torn away along the stitching. This worked very well for me.

I also used a slightly longer stitch length of approximately 3.5 mm for the topstitching.

Inserting the Elastic

Use a safety pin to pull the elastic through the casing.

For my shoe cover, I used a piece of elastic approximately 25 cm long and 8 mm wide. However, the required length depends very much on how stretchy your elastic is.

It is therefore best to test how tightly you want the opening to gather. The cover should stay securely on the shoe while still being easy to pull on quickly.

Sew the two ends of the elastic securely together and then close the small opening in the casing.

Sew the second shoe cover in exactly the same way.

Your Shoe Covers Are Finished

And that’s it – your shoe covers are finished.

I find them especially useful after a trip to the playground, in rainy weather or whenever the shoes are covered in mud. Instead of taking the shoes off before every short car journey, you can simply pull the covers over them.

After the journey, just take them off again and wipe them clean with a damp cloth if necessary. Since they fold up very small, you can also simply keep a pair in the car at all times.