Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Lanyard Tutorial


I've been wanting to make a lanyard for myself for a little while now to use when I go to conferences for work.  With QuiltCon just a few weeks away, I figured now was as good a time as every to make one for myself and one for KK.  Here's a tutorial on how I made my lanyard.

*Note, these instructions are for a lanyard hook with a 1" opening.

1. Cut a piece of fabric 3.75" x 35"

2. Iron your strip in half lengthwise

3. Using the crease you just created, fold the edges in, aligning the edge of the fabric with the crease and iron down.  Repeat for both sides of the fabric. 

4. Fold your strip in half and Iron.  I used starch here to really set all of the seams. 

5. Using a scant seam allowance, sew both sides of your lanyard.  I like to sew the folded side first to avoid puckering and shifting. So far we've followed the same steps you can take to make a bag handle. 


6. Now it's time to sew the hook to the lanyard.  Lay your lanyard like shown in the photo above and below.  Arranging your lanyard like this helps it sit comfortably on your neck.

7. Insert the fabric through the hook.  To avoid raw edges showing, fold your edges under about 5/8" and sew using a tight zig zag or take several passes with a straight stitch.  I just uses a straight stitch because I was too lazy to change my the foot on my machine.

And there you have it, a quick lanyard.  These work up really fast.  I made two of them in about 45 minutes, and that was with stopping to take pictures throughout the process, calculating measurements, etc.

I made a second one out of some Tula Pink Salt Water for KK.  I thought the fabric was perfect for her since she loves the ocean and loves to scuba dive.

If you have a different size lanyard hook, I recommend measuring the opening, multiplying that by four and subtracting 1/4" to give you a little wiggle room.  In my case, my opening was 1" wide.  I multiplied that by 4 to get 4" and subtracted 1/4" to get a width of 3.75" for your starting width.

Fresh Poppy Design

5 comments:

  1. Very cute and clever...thanks for the tuts and have fin at Quilt Con!

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  2. What a fantastic idea! Only problem is, none of the conferences I go to have name tags that attach with a lanyard clip, they're all those little string-you-poke-through-two-holes kind that manages to fall off halfway through, so I'll have to think of some other way to attach the name tag!

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  3. What a lovely lanyard and truly unique.
    Leigh
    http://www.thesewingdivaandherreluctantmodels.blogspot.co.uk/?m=1

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  4. Cute lanyards. Thanks for sharing your directions. Will look for you at QuiltCon ;-)

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