Saturday, January 4, 2014

A Tale Of Four Belts

  I didn't originally plan on making 4 different belts as Christmas gifts this year... it just kind of happened. I started out with this clever idea from Delia Creates for Lego belts:

  Since I have two young brothers-in-law who are extremely difficult to make gifts for, but who like Legos, I made two of these:

  The only difference between the two of them is the Lego figures. Unlike the originals, I used belt webbing for the belt, and a plastic buckle, since it had the flattest top.

  The little guys are not glued on, so any kind of Lego can be added. =)

  Then I saw this clever flower belt at Make It and Love It... and you know I had to make one.

  Only, as usual, I changed some things. This time I kept the base of the belt, with its hidden closure, exactly the same:

  And just changed the flower. I used this tutorial from Pickup Some Creativity for making a finished-edge fabric rose, combined with this tutorial from SnowyBliss for making them stem-less.

  I love the way it turned out! And so does my sister. It was extremely difficult to sew the base of the rose at points, and to sew it to the belt, but with the help of some pliers I managed. =)

  And finally, after a couple miserable fails with some transfer paper on t-shirts, I made my youngest brother a leather belt:

  This one didn't include any sewing at all, just careful cutting and a leather hole punch.

  I used Chicago Screws to attach the buckle to the belt.

  Since there didn't appear to be a 'right' way to put them in, and I liked the screw better on the back of the belt, that is how I inserted them. They would work better with thicker leather or another layer of this thickness, but they still do a good job here.

  I would have finished the edges of the leather better, but since this was a last-minute project, I didn't have the materials for that, so I just burned the edge with a wood-burning tool to help smooth it.

  That is the story of how I made four belts for Christmas. I made two belts last year as well.... I'm not very creative when it comes to handmade gifts for males!

Thanks for stopping by,

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