Make your own garter

A handmade garter by HelenAngel.

Making your own garter is a lot easier and cheaper than finding the perfect one in the store. The only limits is your own imagination! This page contains step-by-step directions for making your own garter.

Supplies

Of course, the supplies you will need for your garter is dependent on the kind of garter you are making. Some brides will use pre-made lace garters that you can buy from a craft store by the yard. Others will opt to use their own fabric. Since the latter is slightly more difficult than the former, in this article we will be discussing garters that are made "from scratch".

The most common supplies used are:

• A good pair of fabric scissors
• Tailor's measuring tape (to measure your thigh)
• Elastic (thin- use about 1/4" elastic on average)
• Fabric (one for the band itself and one for the skirt of it)
• Needle & thread (or sewing machine if you have needles for thick fabric)
• Decorations (sequins, ribbon, charms, etc.)
• Hot glue or fabric glue (if needed to secure decorations)

Once you have your supplies, it's time to start putting things together!

Making the band

Elastic used for garter making.

This section describes making the band (the area of the garter that contains the elastic to hold it in place).

1. Find your thigh measurement by measuring the circumference of your leg. Do this by placing the tape around the area of thigh where you will be wearing your garter. Pull the tape tight and write down the measurement. This will be used to determine the fully stretched length of your garter.

2. Stretch out the elastic until it's taut (it doesn't have to be stretched all the way). Measure it as it is taut to the length of the measurement you just took. Add at least 1/8 inch or 1 cm so you have room to sew it together and cut it. Once it's cut, pull it around your leg to make sure that the elastic fits snugly around your thigh but isn't too tight or too loose.

Cutting the fabric horizontally

3. In this step, we will be cutting the fabric you will use to put around the elastic.

• For the horizontal cut (width), cut the fabric so it is more than twice the width of the elastic (e.g. if you have 1/4" elastic, make sure your fabric is at least 1/2" long). I personally cut about three times the width of the fabric because I like thicker bands and extra fabric with which to work.

Cutting the fabric vertically

• For the vertical cut (length), once again cut the fabric so it is more than twice the length of the elastic (e.g. if you have 50 cm of elastic, cut at least 100 cm of fabric). Once again, I prefer to cut about three times as much so I have more fabric with which to work. Now you should have fabric that is longer and thicker than the elastic.

Now put the elastic to the side for the moment. If you're going to have a skirt on your garter, it's time to attach it before you sew the band fabric together.

Making the skirt

1. Cut whatever fabric or trim the same length as the fabric.

2. Very carefully sew one of the lengthwise edges to the trim or skirt fabric. Be careful to sew it as such that any extra trim coming up over the seam will be inside the band after you sew the band together.

3. Take the garter fabric plus skirt and go to the next step. Do not put extra decoration on it yet.

Sewing it together

The easiest way I've found to sew the fabric is to sew the top and bottom (i.e. the edge where you have sewn the skirt) together first but only halfway without the elastic in it. You may want to put large safety pins on either side of the elastic so that the fabric won't slip over it.

1. Fold the fabric over so that the tops and bottoms of the fabric are touching (and the seam where you sewed the skirt on is on the inside). Sew the top and bottom together halfway.

2. Slip the elastic through the fabric and scrunch up the already sewn fabric on it (so the sewed portion is scrunched up and pushed down the elastic and the rest of the elastic has the unsewed half). Then very carefully sew the rest of the fabric, taking care to not sew the elastic in with fabric. As you sew, continue to scrunch the fabric on the elastic so you can always keep.

3. Now you should have scrunched up fabric and the skirt over the elastic. Sew the elastic together first, using that extra 1/8" or 1 cm in which to sew it. Then carefully sew the edges of the fabric together. Some people like to also sew the ends of the fabric to the seam of the elastic itself. If you do this, make sure the elastic is pulled taut and be very careful because the seam will be difficult to remove.

Decorating

Now you should have a plain but constructed garter! From here you can sew on ribbons, charms, etc. Check out the garter designs page for some fun ways to decorate your garter.

This page will be updated soon with some step-by-step instructions on attaching charms, rosettes, and more! If you need additional help, feel free to contact HelenAngel.

This is a seed article to get things started. Edit this article and watch it grow! Most of AppleBride's articles are written by the community. Please help other brides by sharing your knowledge.