How to Turn a Tube of Fabric Fast without Tube Turner

We make lots of tubes when we make shoulder straps, ties etc for belly dance costumes.

To create a clean looking shoulder strap, you need to sew a tube wrong side out, then turn the tube so the pretty side of the fabric shows.

I used to get frustrated when making tubes, because when the tube is narrow like a 1cm wide, it gets so hard to flip it. The fabric gets bunched up, and I don’t want to compromise by making thick tubes to make the turning easier… I have gotten stressed out and literally cried over this once…or twice…

So I decided to do some research, and found out that there are tube turners that you can purchase. But then I also found a little trick, and you don’t need to spend money if you know this trick 😉

In this video, you will see this little trick I learned a while ago, and this has saved me so much time when flipping tubes. So let’s get started!

For this trick, you need:

A stick that is thinner than the tube. Chopsticks are great for this.

So first make your tube as usual. For this one, I just cut a strip of velvet fabric, folded right sides together and sewed the long side. You can use this trick even if you close up one of the short ends, but you have to leave at least one short end open.

Take a stick, place it about a few centimeters from the edge of the tube. Take only the top layer, pull it a little bit and cover the top of the stick. And do the same for the other side, just take the top layer and cover the top of the stick. Then, start gathering the fabric to cover the stick.

Make sure the end section you left out stays out, and you will notice that this end section goes inside the fabric with the stick. Once it gets going, you can do this pretty fast.

Keep going until you see the right side of the fabric from the inside of the tube.

Once you get to this point, wiggle and push the stick, so the stick comes out. Then hold the inside fabric with one hand, and pull down the outer fabric with the other hand. And the tube is now right side out.

It was a super quick trick, and I hope it helps you save time when you make your costumes. If you like this tutorial, please share with your classmates, and sign up for my newsletter to get updates and freebies from the link below.

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Keep sparkling! 🙂

P.S. Pin this picture for your reminder 😉