Family Home and Life: 'Sleeves' for my Clothing Hangers

Saturday, April 23, 2011

'Sleeves' for my Clothing Hangers

I have a good supply of clothing hangers for clothing pieces that easily slip off, you know strappy blouses, cami's and neck lines that are large. I have both the satin ones you buy and home made crotched ones on wood hangers. The satin ones are nice but they don’t always hold on to those little spaghetti straps and seem to not stand up to very much wear and tear. I don’t crochet much any more though crochet covered hangers work very well; and, I didn’t want to go buy new ones because they can be kinda pricey. I felt I could figure out a way to easily make something with what I already had in my home and with the plastic hangers I already had.

Remember that yellow and white with a green thread checkered/plaid fabric I used to pretty up my craft table? I had plenty left over and not a clue what else to do with it. It has a bit of a texture so it worked well for this project.

First I got out my hangers and decided how I wanted my design to work. I thought that a sleeve that would slip over the hanger would be the easiest to make. If it didn’t have to have a closure at the bottom it would be really fast to make too. I laid my hanger on the fabric and decided how far I wanted the bottom of the ‘sleeve’ to be below the bottom of the hanger; about 2, 3 inches. I used a pencil to trace around the out line of the hanger on the wrong side of the fabric, and cut out 2 pieces.

I made a couple of marks at the top opening on each piece with the fabric folded over. I took it to the sewing machine and stitched the fold in place on each of the 2 pieces I had cut out.

Then with the right sides of my fabric together I stitched the 2 pieces together on the pencil line leaving the opening at the top where I had previously stitched. I turned the bottom edge up and hemmed it about ½ inch .

Turned right side out again I gave it a decorative stitch with a dark green thread around the hem. The sky is the limit for decorative possibilities here!

I was pleased with my work and made few more. I dressed up one of them with a twisted fabric flower.

I decided to make a few for the grand daughters too.

I added a button at the bottom to keep the sleeve from coming off too easily.

On one I tried out a snap. You could probably use ribbon to tie it on also, a closure of some kind would be best for ones for the kids so the hanger sleeve does come off when they remove the clothing from it.

I think next time I will try using a natural color canvas or even a drop cloth for the sleeves for my closet. I would like the neutral color better. I'll keep you posted on that project and add an up date here when I try it. The cost was next to nothing and could have been zero if I had used recycled fabrics from sheets or other suitable materials.

If you don't sew, try this with an iron on seam tape strip. Fabric glue could work, and perhaps even a glue gun. Fabrics with texture such as chinelle or linen works best to hold clothing in place on the hanger. If you do make this sleeve and use a fabric with a smooth surface, consider adding needed texture by gathering the fabric, ruching on the top edge.