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Emery Dress and Patchwork Leather Belt

The last sample my very talented sister, Sherrana made for QuiltCon was the Emery Dress by Christine Haynes. She enjoyed making the pattern so much, she made two. She has written about her experience making the Emery Dress version one in plaid and version two in linen on her blog at Needles and Nails.

For the dress she made for me I picked out Folk Plaid, a print from Maureen Cracknell's beautiful collection Wild & Free from Art Gallery Fabrics.

The dress comes with options for short sleeves, longer sleeves, collar, or a bow waist. I asked Sherrana to make the dress with a collar and longer sleeves.


When the dress is made without the waist bow it is perfect for a fun belt. I have been wanting to make myself a patchwork belt and knew this was the perfect opportunity.

I used a curved belt as a guide for sizing. I traced the shape of the belt onto a piece of cotton batting and then sewed scraps of red, orange, and cream fabric directly to the batting using a stitch and flip method. 

I used Pellon® Peltex Stabilizer (71F) fused to the back of the batting to give the belt a stiff structure. 

To make this a ranger style belt I had to make leather attachment pieces for concho belt to attach to. I cut the two shapes out of Peltex® stabilizer and fused an orange fabric to the fusible side of the stabilizer. I then cut out a piece of Arizona Genuine Leather in Whiskey the same shape as the stabilizer with an extra 1/2" around all sides. I folded the leather over the uncovered side of the stabilizer and used an Elmer's glue stick to keep the edges of the leather down. I used leather to edge the patchwork piece of the belt and then sewed the two leather attachment pieces to the patchwork piece top stitching around the edges of the leather. 


The belt is far from perfect, but considering I sort of hacked the project together I am pretty proud of it. It took me about 2 hours and I must say it was probably one of the most fun projects I have done in a while! 

Thanks for reading about this project, be sure to check out Sherrana's blog posts about the making of the Emery Dresses! 

Alyssa

Alyssa Lichner

Alyssa Lichner

Creator of Pile O' Fabric

Alyssa Lichner is a graphic designer turned avid sewist. She writes modern quilting tutorials and shares techniques and inspiration on her blog, Pile O’ Fabric. Alyssa has a passion for exploring different techniques and applying them to modern designs. She is thankful to have the opportunity to share these techniques, through her tutorials, patterns, and classes with quilters around the world. She always encourages her readers and students to challenge themselves to try new things and to approach quilting with a fearless attitude.

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