DIY Belt Day!

I had decided earlier this year that I wanted one of those wide elastic belts to wear over a sweater or tunic dress. I had found a cute one with flowers on it at the mall for about $10, but decided against it, for whatever reason.

Then, I found Pinterest. Hallelujah.

For the uninitiated, Pinterest has the power to teach you how to do anything (and I do mean anything) yourself.

So I decided to make my own elastic belt! Which, when you walk into Joann Fabrics, turns to two elastic belts.

They were super simple to make and were less than $14. For both.

I know.

I did the simple one first (the one w/ the buckle). I found the buckle at Joann's for about $4, but you can always recycle one if you have an old belt you don't like anymore. The buckle fit a 1.5" elastic, so that's the elastic I bought. I would have gotten wider elastic, but that was the widest buckle they had, so I went with it. You could use whatever buckle you want, or go crazy and attach snaps or grommets or whatever. I went w/ the easiest.

I started by putting the buckle together (once you've taken it apart to examine it, putting it back together is the hardest part!) and then flipping it over. If you look closely, there is a small "R" on the right buckle and an "L" on the left. These are only on the back of the buckle, so it was (relatively) foolproof. You slip the elastic in and hand stitch it down. Obviously, the back of the buckle and the "end" of the elastic will be on the belly side of the belt, not facing out, so make sure you sew it on right.

At this point, I still hadn't cut the elastic, so I pulled it around where I wanted it to fit to figure out where to make the cut (excuse my crappy nails). Make sure you are measuring with both ends of the buckle in place, since it will take up about 2.5" around your middle.

I allowed myself a little extra elastic, because I figured I could always cut the rest off. As it turns out, the elastic was kind of "bendy" and when I folded it around the buckle and tucked it under, it stayed remarkably well. Then, I just hand sewed another straight stitch and was done!

I also took a lighter to the end of the elastic, just to keep it from fraying.

The Flower Belt was a little trickier....

I found this fastener set at Joanns for $3 for a pack of two. I thought both sets were silver, but one of them was actually this really cool gunmetal color. Just like with the other belt, I attached the fastener before cutting. The idea is a lot like sewing on a button, so I just looped in and out of the little hole until it was nice and snug. That baby isn't going anywhere.

It doesn't matter what it looks like on the back, since a) that part will be turned in towards my belly and b) the whole buckle is going to be covered up by a big flower anyway. Time to attach the second fastener. This part was a little harder.

Again, I attached the buckle halves together and held the non-attached half as well as the elastic in the same hand. Then I used my other hand to poke my threaded needle through the elastic and the buckle hole at the same time.

Like so. With my needle in place, I just started sewing. The toughest part was actually making sure that the buckle was centered in the elastic so that it would match up with the buckle on the other side. Adjust it if you have to.

Once the buckle was attached, I cut off any excess and singed the ends, then added the flower using this tutorial.

I'll let her explain, since I really did exactly the way she described it and holy crap, it actually works!

I think I'm in love....