Pleather is the bane of all existence

Ack!  A day late!  Well, the next few weekends may be a bit wonky, but hopefully I'll be able to keep up on crafting.  As an apology/bribe, the Jo-Ann Fabrics in my town has a clearance sale on a lot of their fancy yarns (especially the weird kinds like eyelash).  Your store might not, but it's worth checking in to!

So, this week is finishing the yarn belt and making armbands.

Yarn Belt

So, pleather sucks.  It sticks to the sewing machine.  I have yet to try putting scotch tape on the sewing foot (carefully cutting away the tape over open segments), but it still can stick to the base depending on if you are doing anything double-sided or unlined.  So beware.  (Sewing a pleather corset is a special level of hell, I swear to you.)

But I have a ton of it still, so I'm using it.  For my sanity however, only one side of the belt is pleather.  The other side is black microsuede.  Technically, it's reversible.  I went ahead and sewed the bottom first, sandwiching the yarn between the fabric so that the lacing would end up inside the belt.  

I did not sew through the lace, just the yarn.

In a moment of stupidity, I sewed up the sides next.  In some ways, doing the sides made several things easier, but it made sewing the top a royal pain.

On the one hand, it made it much easier to sew in a little boning and the ties.  

I used simple, plastic boning that's actually meant for you to sew through on a machine (as opposed to the kind with casing).  It's not absolutely necessary, but it gives the belt more structure at the ends and helps keep it from crumpling when you tie it.

One for each side, ends trimmed to a curve.

I sewed the boning on the suede side where the stitching is barely noticeable, and then I got started on the ties.  Instead of grommets/eyelets, this time I turned to some random white rope I've have for years.  I cut two equal lengths and then went about getting them prepped for sewing.

Knot about 3-4 inches from the end and separate all the strands....

...and voila!  A nice, simple tassel.

 After making the tassels, I wanted to do something interesting at the belt level that would also make the cord thinner, AKA easier to sew and less likely to make odd lumps inside the belt.  I unwound the cord a few inches, keeping the strands in pairs.  I carefully knotted them at the fork and the ends.

Be careful knotting at the fork, the braiding likes to do its own thing.

Now, sew everything up, and we get a pretty nifty little look!

Unfortunately, now it's time to sew the top edge.  I decided to be brave and do some contrast stitching, but the pleather made that a minor fiasco.  The pleather stuck at the beginning, leaving me with this nasty mess: 

And then the pleather started rolling out, forcing me to stop, unpick some stitches and start again.  Remember how I warned you that pleather is unforgiving?

You can see how the original stitching left holes and how trying to fix it messed up the line.

So, now I have to add some embellishment to cover the top edge.  I just haven't found something I like for it yet.

Still, we have a pretty much finished yarn belt!

Arm Bands

The other thing I did this week was just a minor project to use some scraps.  I made pleather armbands (just going off general upper-arm circumference), and then, in true DIY form, slipped them inside plastic packing rings that came off two bottles of mead.  (Texas Renaissance Faire Mead all the way.)

The red stuff is the mead bottle packing, trimmed down a bit.

I think it looks pretty cool.  The mead packing can be worn on its own, but the edges can be a little "pokey."  

So, now we're on to hunting for an upper edging on the belt and starting the next belt, I suppose.  I'll also be starting work on mock-ups of a bra top pattern soon.  Let's hope it works!