Contempo Blog Hop Day 4: Strip-Pieced Wrist Strap and Lanyard Set by Ebony Love

Welcome to the final day of the Contempo Studio Blog Hop! Today, the talented Ebony Love of LoveBug Studios is sharing a quick and easy tutorial--colorful wrist straps and lanyards, strip pieced from the Dwellings Beach House colorway. Check out Ebony's tutorial and then find out how you can enter to win a bundle of this gorgeous fabric!

Here's Ebony!

It’s really simple to make a wrist strap or lanyard from just a few strips of fabric, and end up with dozens of nice stitchy gifts for your favorite quilting friends at holiday time.

I truly have a love affair with fabrics, and Benartex fabrics are among my favorites. However, I don’t always have the time to incorporate my favorites into a quilt, nor do I have the wall or bed space to display as many as I like.  Besides, I like being able to have the fabrics I love with me at all times, but I can’t sit in my studio all day buried under my bolts!  That’s what makes a project like this so appealing – I get nearly instant gratification because it stitches up so quickly, and I can take my favorite fabrics with me wherever I go.

Let’s get started!

Materials:

6 fat quarters (pick your favorites from the Contempo fat quarter pack!)

3 – 10 1” swivel hooks (these are usually in the notions or purse supplies section of your local craft store)

2- 15-1/2” x 21” pieces of lightweight fusible interfacing (Pellon #911F is awesome for this!)

From each fat quarter, cut:

2- 3” x 21” strips

You’ll be making two strip sets, so arrange the strips the way you like them and stitch them together in rows.  Press your seams open so your strip set lays nice and flat. Repeat for the other strip set.

Once your strip set is assembled, with wrong sides together, layer with the fusible interfacing and fuse.  This will stabilize your strips and add a bit of body to the finished piece. Repeat for the other strip set.

Now, cut 4” strips along the width of each strip set. You should be able to get five pieced strips from each strip set.

If you want to make a lanyard, piece three of the 4” strips together into one long strip, and press those seams open. If you’re making a wrist strap, you only need one strip.

Fold your strip in half lengthwise with the right side out and press along the fold.  Starch works great here – you want a really crisp fold.

Next, fold the raw edges to the center, and press those folds as well.  Your strip is now about 1” wide.

Thread your folded strip into the swivel hook until the hook is about at the center of the fabric. 

Here’s where it gets a little tricky, but once you do this you’ll see why and start using this technique for straps from now on!

With the swivel hook at the center, unfold the raw ends of the strap and pin them right sides together. 

Stitch this with a 1/4” seam, and press the seam open.  Now you can refold the strap and you have a continuous loop for your swivel hook.

At your sewing machine, use a zipper foot (or your 1/4" piecing foot) to topstitch the strap through all layers, about 1/4" from the edge. Repeat on the opposite side.

The last step is a little bit different for the wrist strap and lanyard. For the wrist strap, fold the strap in half around the swivel hook so that you don’t have a bulky seam near the hook.  Topstitch close to the swivel hook through all layers, reinforcing your stitches by stitching several times over your stitching line.

For the lanyard strap, when you fold the strap in half around the hook, you want to angle the strap slightly so that your lanyard forms a “v” near the hook. This will allow the lanyard to lay flat against your chest. Topstitch the strap as you did for the wrist strap.

Now, you get to decide how many wrist straps and lanyards you will make from your two strip sets.  You can either make 10 wrist straps; 1 lanyard and 7 wrist straps; 2 lanyards and 3 wrist straps; or 3 lanyards and 1 wrist strap. The possibilities are endless and awesome indeed!

Do you want to win a Dwellings fat quarter set of your own? Just sign up to follow the Benartex blog using either Bloglovin’ or the email feature (both in the right sidebar). Then leave a comment below this post telling us that you are a follower and letting us know who you would make lanyards or wrist straps for. This giveaway will be open through Monday, September 2 at 11:59 pm EST.

Find the remaining Contempo blog hop tutorials here:

Day 1: Quarter Log Cabin Pillow Covers by Clover & Violet

Day 2: Ruffle Trim Bib from see kate sew

Day 3: Reversible Placemats by the Benartex Blog Team