My third tablet woven band – making my very first garters…

I recently finished my third tablet woven band and as I had no definite plan for its use yet, I decided to make something that is still missing from my wardrobe – garters for my beloved stockings! Woohoo! 😀

Well, yes, many people consider garters a quite essential accessory for a medieval wardrobe but my favorite red stockings are so very tightly fitted that they normally stay up by themselves and without any problems. Therefore I never really saw the immediate necessity to make some garters for myself. Though I have to admit that I was – from time to time – thinking that it would be nice to own a pair of garters myself as they look really spiffy.

And this just finished tablet woven silk band opened up a great chance for me to finally make some silk garters for myself. And maybe also a pair of garters for my husband as I try to be a good wife and he really deserved a treat for some recent good deeds. Well, you know, I love fun projects like this and the best of all – this project would also close a long time gap in my personal wardrobe.

And now lets take a sneak peek at my new silk garters… – enjoy! 😀

First I took the finished tablet woven band and measured the width underneath my knee. Then I added a little bit extra so I could comfortably make a simple knot right after the ring and added a little bit more to create a nice looking tail as well as a little bit more for sewing. And then I cut off two pieces of the estimated length from the band.

With the help of an embroidery needle I unraveled about 6 to 7mm of the end to create a nice fringe and used the weft yarn (German: Schussfaden) to secure the end of my tablet woven band.

In order to secure the end of my band I simply threaded the weft yarn – which I just pulled out to create the fringes – into a needle and worked it through some of the pockets of the weft yarn above the end – like shown at the pictures above (front of the band) and underneath (backside of the band).

And as I had no nice buckles in a proper size on hand, I used some simple washers my husband got for me at the other end:

And the next step was quite easy – I simply put the band through the washer and then I folded the end of the tablet woven band to the inside to keep it from unravelling in the future. With some simple stitches along both edges I connected all layers together and then I added some more stitches where I folded the band as well as close to the washer to connect all layers firmly.

I followed the above described steps just three more times and was rewarded with two full sets of garters – one set for my dear husband and one set, which is a little bit shorter, for myself: 

I think that the work was definitely worth it – they look great, don’t they. And the process to make this garters was actually so easy that I wonder why I haven’t done it before or why not more people make and use them… *lol*

We already had a chance to test the new silk garters during the last event and I am very glad to say that we both loved them. I even promised some friends to make them some new silk garters too.

Btw. speaking about the last event – you can find my pictures of the last event here on facebook: SCA – Kingdom of Meridies – Glaedenfeld’s Iris Faire 2016

…and I was so busy taking pictures during the event and hanging out with friends that I completely forgot to take a picture of myself wearing my new purple 12th century dress or my new silk garters. I will try to get a picture of my new garters and my new purple dress the next time…