Wedding/Prom Garter Tutorial

As many of you know my little sister got married a couple months ago! As part of the preparations I had the fun of making her garters for her. She requested Chicago Blackhawks garters to surprise her groom with (a fantastic idea in my book). In the end they looked a little like this.

I recently had the privilege of making another set (this time Chicago Cubs) for a friend. This time around I decided to share the process :) Hope you enjoy!

Wedding Garter Tutorial

Supplies Needed:
Ribbon (1 1/2" for the widest portion; 1" for the middle portion)
Thread
Elastic
Emellishments
Straight Pins
Safety Pin
Scissors
Sewing Machine

(I have a hot glue gun in my picture but I ended up not using it.)

1. The first thing you're going to want to do is measure the leg the garter will be on. I didn't have this capability so I cut my elastic to be 14". If you are able to measure the leg, you will want to cut your elastic to be a little shorter than what you measure so it "holds" onto the leg and doesn't slide down.

2. The next thing to do is to cut your ribbon to be 1 1/2 x as long as your elastic. (In my case the ribbon was 21".)

3. Next pin your 2 types of ribbon together . You will want to center the more narrow ribbon on the wider ribbon.

(I added ruffles to the bottom of the keepsake garter shown)

4. Now you can sew your ribbon together. To do this you want to sew as close to the edge as possible down both sides of the narrow ribbon. By doing this you are creating a casing for your elastic to be fed through.

5. Now attach your safety pin to one end of your elastic and feed it through the casing you just made. Use a straight pin to attach the end of the elastic to each end of the casing. The casing should bunch up since it is longer than the elastic.

6. Now fold the garter in 1/2 so that the right sides are facing each other and sew through all layers. At this point I also burn the ends of my ribbon so they won't fray.

6. And this is what you get.

7. The last thing to do is attach any embellishments you want. To make the sports themed garters I used charms from dangle earrings I purchased online and some extra ribbon for the bow. I sewed them on but you could also hot glue them (hence the hot glue gun in the first picture). And Voila!

(Please excuse the pasty white leg :P)