"Poor Boy Suspenders" Tutorial

After reading up a bit on "Poor Boy Suspenders," I thought I'd give it a try.

I used some cotton broadcloth (if you want to be more accurate, though, Liz Clark mentions in her book, The Dressmaker's Guide, that historic broadcloth was most likely wool).

How I did it:

1. I measured my little boy to see how long I wanted the suspenders to be. The finished length needed to be 31". I wanted the finished width to be 1.5".

2. So, I cut two pieces 32" x 6".

3. I always like to use my iron to mark lines in my fabric, so I folded my fabric in half lengthwise, pressed it; folded my short ends in about 1/2", pressed them; then, folded each long half down to the mid-mark, pressed them; then lastly, folded it in half lengthwise and pressed. (I could have made my whole piece 32" x 2 1/2", but I wanted to bulk up my fabric.)





4. Then I top-stitched the three open sides (two short sides and the one long side). (One source said top stitching was done on just 3 sides of the fabric.)

5. Then I put two button-holes on each front and one button-hole on each back (yes, I know I used my machine!!).

I'm going to see how well they stay on my son (uh, once he gets some pants). If they slip, I may attach the two back pieces, or make a "slider" on the inside as one of the sources mentioned.

These were super easy and took about 30 minutes.