Hi Jill
I have made several wedding garters now, one of which I wore myself almost six years ago. I have found that threading the wide knicker type elastic through the middle where the ribbon would go to be most uncomfortable and unsatisfactory. So the method I use is to slip stitch sheering elastic along both edges just to the side of where the ribbon is threaded, the bit that is like a footside edge running down either side of the middle. The sheering elastic does not leave nasty marks and is strong enough to hold the garter in place quite securely. Once the sheering elastic is slip stitched into place ( I do not stretch the elastic at this stage) I knot the ends and then carefully pull up the sheering elastic so that the garter ruches up. Once the elastic has been pulled up so that the garter is about the right size to fit I tie a new knot so as to shorten the elastic and cut off the excess elastic. I leave a bit of leeway so that the garter can be further adjusted nearer the day by the bride if need be (having shown her before hand how to do it). The ribbon looks as if it is holding the garter in place but it is the elastic that does the work.
The waste sheering elastic doesn't actually go to waste I use it double thickness to thread through two beads, one larger than the other (size of those used as a bottom bead for a spangle or slightly larger) - a bit like a hair bobble. They are useful for holding two bobbins linked together when you need to use two bobbins as if they were one ie adding in a bobbin to replace one that it is running short of thread. Slip around the two bobbins and pass one bead over the other.
Hope that this is of use to you. Nicky in Suffolk
I would really appreciate some advice about elastic for wedding garters please :o)
I have completed a garter (one of Biggin's torchon garter patterns) for one of my friends at work - although she doesn't know it yet - and luckily she is one of these stick insect types so I didn't have to do yards and yards of it. Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed doing it and am quite sorry it is finished.
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