Look Ma - No Pins!

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you might recognize the ribbon below. I promised a sweet little boy a belt some time ago (actually two belts) ... he's continued to remind me about 'the elephant belt' ... for some time now ... sigh. It was time to get to it (it's taken me 5 months). You got a little sneak peak on this post.

I know there are tons tutorials out there on how to make a belt but his is how I did it. It's very a very loose tutorial - and no pins! I hope you find it helpful. I'm not the best at following directions much less writing them so please leave me a comment if I've totally missed something or have made a mountain out of a mole hill!

I started with a belt of Henry's that was a size small (it still fits but getting a little short - he now wears a 3T - skinny minny!) - took the measurements and then added some length. I came up with this:

28 1/4 inches of 1 inch wide cotton webbing

34 inches of 7/8 inch ribbon

1 pair of 1 inch D-Rings

1 spool of thread

Fabric glue stick - I used this one

Step One

Take end of ribbon and fold over 1/4 inch - unfold - slide some glue on there and fold her back over the 1/4 inch. You are now going to take the folded end and fold again - this time with 1/2 inch over the back side of the belt (like the picture) - good time to glue ...

Step Two

Next take the glue stick and give the webbing a decent slick down the whole length of the belt (remember your ribbon is longer than your webbing). Carefully stick the ribbon to the webbing making sure that your ribbon is centered.

Step Three

Now turn your belt over so that the wrong side of the ribbon is facing you (where it extends past the webbing). Fold the end over 1/4 inch - good time to glue.

Step Four

Bring the ribbon back over the webbing and glue down. You are gluing this to the back of the belt.

Step Five

You are ready to sew! Use a 1/8 inch seam allowance to edge stitch the ribbon in place. You should have no slipping because glue rocks! Your fingers should be free of stab marks too because no pins! Stitch all the way around until you meet where you began.

When you are done sewing the back of your belt should look something like this:

Step Six

You are now ready to add your D-rings. Slip them on the end with the 1/2 inch ribbon then fold over 2 inches like so:

Step Seven

Sorry the picture is so dark - I have a new appreciation of those who can sew and take pictures at the same time. Now it's time to secure the D-Rings. I used an 1/8 inch seam again and just stitched back and forth a few time to make sure the seam could take some serious tugging from a 4 year old.

Now go forth ... get some ribbon and start making a belt to hold those britches up!