Vinyl wrist cuff tute - in downloads

[ericaeli]

This is a tutorial to make a vinyl wrist cuff. When I used to make and sell these, they were popular with teens and tweens. Since having my ds, I have become very out of touch with fashion, so I hope these are not considered totally lame now. I am also including some tips for sewing with vinyl (in case the cuffs themselves are lame), and other projects made with vinyl because I think vinyl is fun to sew with.



Materials you will need:

Vinyl (I always check the remnant bin for small pieces in different colors)
Fleece
Thread (I like a heavier variegated thread because it shows up better. My favorite thread is King Tut)
Teflon or roller foot (though I was able to sew fine without one partially because my foot is narrow, and it is metal)
Topstiching needles
Decorative punches and rotary blade (see pics below)

Decorative hole punches and Teflon and roller foot


Cut your vinyl (I use a rotary cutter) to the size you wish. I have a 6 inch wrist, and cut the vinyl 8 1/4" x 1 3/4", so if you add about 2 1/4" to your wrist measurement you should be good. Once the vinyl has been cut, I like to round the ends. I just put a spool of thread on the wrong side, and draw the curve in. then I cut it away.


Next you want to roughly cut a piece of fleece for the inside of your cuff. I like fleece because it is soft, and it is warmer for winter. You will trim it to match the vinyl after you sew it, but for now just roughly cut it.


I like to use a small hole punch to punch a bunch of holes in the vinyl. so that a bit of the fleece will show through when you are done.


Sew around the edge of your vinyl to attach it to the fleece. You may also choose to do this as your last step which you will see at the end of the tutorial. When I sew vinyl, I like to use a long stitch length so the vinyl doesn't tear, and also so the stitches really show up.


I like to attach vinyl circle or other shaped cut outs to my cuffs. I have found that the large punches for paper work pretty good on vinyl with a bit of force (stepping on the punch works really well). On this cuff I used circles. I attached them to the cuff with a bit of wonder tape to hold them in place until I sewed them down.


Sew your circles down by sewing a wavy line along the cuff. You could just sew the wavy line without adding the circles if you want. I just keep going back and forth till it looks right to me. It might help to reduce the pressure on your foot if you machine lets you so that you can move the vinyl back and forth easily while sewing.


If you added your fleece already you will see your stitches on the underside of the cuff. I sort of like how this looks, but, if you would rather it be cleaner inside, add your fleece to the vinyl now. Once you are finished sewing your cuff, trim the fleece so it is the same as the vinyl.


Add a snap to your cuff. I used size 24 metal snaps, but smaller snap would be fine as well.


Try on your cuff


More cuff samples. The brown cuff is leather. You would use the same techniques for sewing lightweight leather.


Vinyl tote bag made by doing the same embellishment as the cuff on both the front of the bag and the handle of the bag. The handle is fleece on the reverse side, so it is really soft. For the handle I cut the vinyl with a decorative rotary blade.