Straps Made of Faux Suede

I have some really lovely faux suede in a fawn color, that I wanted to make into thin strips for strapping bracers on or accents on clothes, etc. The doll is MSD size, so the idea of just folding it over and making a very tiny tube and trying to pull it through seems. Painful. LOL. Experimenting on tiny pieces has commenced.

My initial thought was to just fray check the cloth and cut it. I have two types of fray check at home, and both of them ended up soaking through the fabric and changing the color as well as really stiffening it up. The color change was mostly tolerable, but the stiffened fabric didn't work so well for tying - the sides ended up shredding just doing a simple pretty loose knot. I tried just getting a very thin coat on so it doesn't soak through (and discolor/harden as much), but application is awfully difficult and it ended up splotchy.

I've been trying to think of other things to try. My one idea so far is using some clear spray on Mod Podge as a thin coat on the back and see how that goes.

Has anyone done something like this before with faux suede? What worked for you? Would I just be better off folding the strips in half and doing a stitch line to keep it from fraying?

Thank you ^_^

 

*slaps self on forehead*

Yes, yes, it's polyester and melting the edges would most likely work and save me a great deal of headache. Thank you! My hope was to use it without hemming at all, so it's got a more "natural leather strap" look. But if I fold it over and just seam one side that shouldn't look too bad (and just trim the seam edge close).

I don't have any personal reasons to not want to use real leather (in my opinion, plastic "leather" isn't really a viable alternative as plastics are a huge issue for the environment as well). I just haven't been able to find anything thin enough and available locally that would work for my purposes.