Simple Reach Strap Tutorial

Are you having trouble pulling your hood onto your little one's head in a back carry? Do you just want a little something to cute-ify your hood? The most versatile and easily changed accessory is the reach strap! Follow this easy and fast tutorial and you'll be accessorized in no time.

For this super quick and simple tutorial, you will need a strip of fabric that is 2.5" wide by about 19-20" long. If you would like to use two different fabrics or need to utilize space on your fabric differently, you can use two strips that are each 2.5" wide by about 10" long.

First, fold your fabric strip in half width-wise. That's hot dog style for those of you that spend all day with kiddos. Now sew all the way around the open edges using a quarter inch seam allowance.

Yes, I really did mean ALL the way around. Even the ends.

Now cut your strip in half length-wise. You should be left with two pieces that are about 1.25" x 10" and a seam around one end and the side.

Now turn your tube right sides out. There are lots of ways that you can do this. Some people use a straw and a pencil. Some people have fancy tools that turn these small tubes. I struggled with this step until I discovered a little tool in my sewing kit that I didn't really use much. It's called a bodkin. If you don't have one, it's worth the $1 to buy one at Jo-Ann when you have a coupon!

Take the little bodkin and drop it into the tube.

Scrunch up a little bit of the fabric on the sewn end and push it into the open end of the bodkin.

Slide the little metal ring upwards to close the bodkin around the fabric.

Slide the bodkin down through the tube like you're feeding elastic through a casing.

Voila, your tube has been inverted! Stick a pencil or something else with a point down into the tube to push the corners out and make them look a little more neat.

Now press them flat.

If you are not embellishing the ends or only sewing something to one side of the end, you'll want to tuck in the bottom, unsewn edge.

Now topstitch all the way around the entire strip. Again, if embellishing, you don't need to topstitch the open end.

Apply your snaps to the finished end and you're done!

If you want to learn how to use your embroidery machine to embellish the ends, check out my tutorial here.

If you enjoyed this tutorial, consider donating to help me write more! Thank you to those who have already made donations. A small donation will go a long way!