Weekend Making: Fabric Shoelaces

I wanted to pop in and share this fun craft that Jane and I worked on over the weekend. She had a birthday party for two friends to attend and I suggested that wemake shoelaces for the girls to go along with the gift cards webought them. I used this tutorial by Liesl Gibsonfound on the Lisette blog (she also shows how to make them onCreativebug). They were super straight forward to make, easy and fast. Win, win, win! The aglets (that's the word for the little ends on shoelaces) were made with washi tape and nail polish. In Liesl's tutorial, she used clear polish, but Jane wanted to add a little bling, so we went metallic. Jane asked me to make a pair for her, too. That girl has some goodtaste...she specifically asked if I had any Liberty florals she couldchoose from. Uh, yes, I do.

A couple of notes if you make these:

- 48" is a good length for adult sized Converse low tops, and 54" is what you need for most high tops. For kid sized shoes, it's probably best to measure the lace that comes with the shoe.

- You need to use a lightweight fabric. Quilting cotton is a good option, but so is voile and lawn. Small prints look the best.

- You will have to piece your fabric if you are using traditional quilting cotton (40" to 44" in width). For the pairs we gave as gifts (not shown), I pieced 3 widths of fabric together, did the sewing, and then cut the laces to 48" from the one longer strip. With Jane's Liberty laces, one 54" width trimmed to 48" was sufficient for each lace.

- I found cutting the fabric with my rotary cutter and ruler left me fewer strings to deal with than tearing the fabric did.

- I found it easiest to sew the laces shut when I moved the sewing machine needle all the way to the left and sewed along the right edge of the lace. This placed the shoelace right over the feed dogs and kept it under the presser foot.

- We put 3 coats of nail polish on each tip to make sure that the tape would stay put and to ensure a nice hard finish.

I bet I will be making a lot more shoelaces soon...I'm thinking birthday party favors, stocking stuffers, etc. I think they would also make super cute "ribbon" to tie on a present.