With this guide you should be able to make tongues for high top dunks, with a few modifications here and there you can make the tongues for AF1, GR/”new SB” low top dunk a couple of other similar styled tongues.
Materials that you will need:
Sewing machine: you need a strong one, if you have a weak machine, then the stitches might not catch through the foam.
Headliner foam: you can normally buy this in Jo-Anns or any upholstery store, it normally comes in a 1/4″ thickness, with one side being plain foam and the other with a soft liner. Sometimes you can find thinner ones but 1/4″ works best.
Foam slab: for high/low(already explained) top dunks, the Best to use for this is 1/4″ inch foam(or headliner foam) if you want a GR thickness to it, if you want a SB feel to it, you need 1/2″ regular density foam. This you cant find in Jo-Anns, they have thick density, but its just too thick. To find regular density foam you need to look at your local upholstery/leather shops.
Stretchable liner fabric: Spandex, Jetsett, anything thats flexible on all sides.
Material for the top of the tongue: can be suede, tricot, leather, whatever.
Heavy or upholstery thread, its important to use this, because if you use regular thin threads, then it will give it an ackward, weak look.
Single Fold Bias tape : you can find this in Jo-Anns for something like $2 bucks.
Super 3M 77 Multipurpose spray glue: you can find this in Home depot for about 10 bucks for a big can.
Household Goop: again in home depot or any general hardware store.
Now here begins the process, un-stitch the tongue tags from the original/donor tongues, you can reuse them for the new tongues, or you can make you own by scanning them and then photoshopping and printing them on printable canvas(you can find this in office depot/max ), thats as far as I’m going to get on the custom tongue tags. You guys figure it out on your own.
First make a template of the OG tongue, you can do this by masking up the tongue with tape and then outlining the shape and cutting it out:
With this template you cam make the top part of the tongue(made out suede, tricot, leather ect) for this you need to glue whatevever material you want to go with, on top of of the foamy side of the headliner foam, use the 3M 77 spray for this glue job. then when you have that done, use the tape template you made and cut out two patterns. Now that you have two “upper” parts of the tongue, you will put these two again untop of some more headliner foam, this time your have to cut out squares that should fit the tongues inside. make sure that they are at least 1 inch bigger on all sides of the tongue. When you have this cut out, you will glue the foamy side of the square headliner foam patter with 3M 77, and you have to now quickly put this untop of the flexible liner material that you want to use. with that done, you will now have the “bottom” piece of the tongue.
Now get your tape tongue pattern again and put it on top of the 1/2″ foam slab (at this point its important to know which side to put it untop of, most of the places where they sell the foam slabs have huge rolls, so when you get your piece cut out, make sure that it has a natural “bend” so that it goes along with the curvature of the way the tonge is supposed to go) with a thin tip permanent marker, make an outline of the tongue. Then take of the tape, and cut out inside of the pattern, to about 1/2 off from the actual border, this foam slab will be “stuffing” for the tongue, the reason why you shouldn’t just make it in the same size of the tongue, is so that it becomes easier to stitch later, heres some pics of the process:
At this point you should have all the components of the tongue, here a pic of how each one will be layared untop of each other:
Now you have to set up your sewing machine so that the stitch lenght is at its farthest, if you have a singer set it up on 5.
Now take of the 1/2″ foam slab from the sandwhich of foams you have, and you should have the “top” and “bottom” piece laying the way they should be, Only stitch half of the tongue(the bottom) :
when your done with that, stick the foam slab inside and move it around on the inside until it fits snugly and secure, it should not stick out of the border of the “top” part of the tongue:
Now that its in place, stich the rest(upper part) of the tongue. and it should be closed off, when thats done, you have to stitch one line on the bottom piece of the tongue, this will be and indicator for when you attatch the tongue to the shoe, it makes it easier to put it straight, plus easier to stitch:
Get the original tongue, and with a ruler, measure out the distance between the top of the tongue, and the first line of stitching, when you know the distance, get the tongue your making and flip it over, if you have a light colored liner, you can get a pencil and just draw the line of the stitching, if its a dark liner, get a piece of transparent scotch tape and put it in place of the line. Now stitch the tongue(with a medium stitch setting, with singers use “3″ setting) with the “top” part facing bottom, the reason for this is that you will stitch the curvuture in place like this, to enhance this, curve the tongue as much as you can while stitching: when done with that, stitch the second line(if you used tape as a marker, remove it now for the second line)
When your done stitching, your tongue should have a natural shaped curvature:
Flip the tongue over, and place your tag into place, quick note on this, there are many ways to attach the tag, if you want to stitch it the way that nike does it(with the made in china, ect on back tag) then you have to do a seperate step for this, im not going into it, its easy to figure out anyways.
Besides that you will have to stitch the third liner here, so you have to make sure your indication line in the back of the tounge goes well with the tongue tag in the front:
Now you have to stitch the lace stay, for this measure on the original tongue where it should go in the new tongue, you can stitch the lace stay with the front of the tongue facing up:
At this point the only thing missing is the piping on the tongue, for this you will have to use single fold bias, watch this video(By Amy Karol) to get an idea of how its gonna be placed on the tongue, the actuall process will differ a bit since the tongue is thicker then what she actually sews:
Now that you have a bit of an idea of what we are gonna do, ill begin, just to start my method will be a TAD bit different then what she has, due to the curvature and thickness of the tongue.
You have to get the fold tape the way that she said in the video with the “thinner” part on the border of the tongue, she says not to go over to the edge, but since our tongue is thicker, you have to go to the edge:, stitch it again with the “5″ setting on your machine(or the longest stitch) remember to stitch right on the fold:
The first border should be stiched now like on the picture^^, at this point you will have to flip the tongue over and look at the stitchlines made:
At this point im switching the tongues, since on the first tongue i started with on this tutorial i didnt put GOOP, which is a HUGE helper on this:
if you look at the picture(or your tongue) there should be two stitchlines on the border of the tongue, you have to put GOOP in between these two stitchlines, do it QUICKLY, and dont use too much:
do this for the first side, then pull the bias tape and put it into place, make sure that its as far as it goes inward, and press it really hard so that it actually sticks, this shouldn’t take more then a minute, when your done with this first side, Do the top border of the tongue, when thats done, do the last side. when your done it should look like this:
MAKE SURE ITS SECURE, if its not then its gonna get loose and you will have put GOOP for nothing, give it about 15 minutes to dry and then flip the tongue over to front. you will now stitch the top border, Dont stitch on top of the border, do it about 1/16″ of an inch, i know its a tiny amount, but its perfect. make sure to stitch this part with a medium length(“3″ setting on singers) heres how it should look when done:
and BAM your done! now do this all over again for the second tongue. Your first and second tongue might not come out perfect, but by the third time you should have it down like factory.
about 6 months ago
Really Good Articles/posts that you have on this site. Thanks