Handmade Gifts 2014- DIY Fabric and Leather Upcycled Belt

There isn’t a week that goes by where I don’t make it to the thrift store at least once. One of the staples I always seem to walk out with are leather belts. I use them all the time when I make my upcycled bags. I found this adorable fabric on Etsy last month that looks like vintage feedsack patchwork. It was so adorable I knew I wanted to make a belt( and about a hundred other things) with it! I have made belts with webbing before, but this belt I felt was needing a little something special. I thought I’d try and stitch the fabric directly on the leather, but I could not find any nice leather belts that were thin enough thickness wise or wide enough and my size. So, I bought one that I could use with my webbing and as it turns out this was a super easy, fast, and inexpensive project!

Here’s What You Need:

*1.25″ Cotton Webbing

*Fabric

*Basting Spray or Stitch Witchery

*Leather Belt

*Iron

*Sewing Machine and Heavy Duty Thread

Instructions:

The first thing you need to do is gather your supplies and cut your webbing fabric and belt. Decide how much of the leather belt you wish to show at the front. Cut the belt on each side where you like. Measure your hips or waist where you are going to wear the belt. Measure the leather belt piece and subtract that measurement from the total length. Add an inch to the length for your seam overlap. Cut your webbing to the length you measured. Cut your fabric to be 2″ wide by the length of your webbing.

Fold one side under by 1/2″ and iron down. Then fold the other side in by half an inch and iron down. Spray starch will help keep your fabric allowance nice and flat if you need some extra hold.

Now, you can either use double sided stitch witchery between the fabric and webbing and iron down, or you can spray the back of your fabric piece with basting spray and mount it to your webbing.

Now you are ready to sew. Stitch close to the edge of your fabric. Stitch up one side, then pivot and stitch across the bottom, then pivot and stitch up the other side.

Snip off the very ends of your webbing to clean up the edges.

Lay your first side of your leather belt piece overlapping one side of the webbing by half an inch. Top stitch close to the end and then right below where the webbing ends. Do the same thing for the other side of the belt. Clip threads. Snip and blend the leather to the webbing if the leather is wider than the webbing. And that’s it, easy right!

I think this belt turned out super cute! It was really easy and fast to whip up, and it was really inexpensive too! I made this belt in about a half an hour. The fabric I used was Lecien’s Old New. I used a strip off of a fat quarter and still had most of my piece left over. So, you can easily get by with long scraps or by buying an 1/8th or quarter yard at the store. I think this would make a wonderful gift for ladies, especially teens or young women! I hope you all will think about making one for one of your favorite girls or yourself sometime! I’ll be back tomorrow with another fun handmade gift. Until then…

Happy Crafting!