Most ladies wear belts not out of necessity but because of fashion. There are thousands of selections of belts depending on the style, color, and material and the belts that never go out of fashion are the leather belts.
But why buy when making your own belt is possible? Making a leather handmade belt and designing its handmade buckle is a fun and creative way to be unique.
Read on to start making your very own fashion statement.
Step 1:
Grab the things you need to make your own handmade belt and designed handmade buckle. For the leather belt, you will need: vegetable leather, dye, alphabet kit and other tools. While for the buckle, you will need: blank-belt-handmade buckle with ridge, images, scrap paper, rhinestones, glaze, jewel glue, glue stick and paintbrushes.
Step 2: Start making your handmade belt.
• Take measurements of your waistline and transfer them into the leather by tracing it using pencil and ruler. Add 1′ to the waist’s length and be sure to mark the leather lightly.
• Lay the vegetable leather on a mat and cut it using a razor knife. Use ruler in guiding you making clean, straight cut.
• Decide on the look of the free end of the belt. Will it be rounded or pointed?
• From the uncut belt end, make a crease about 1 to 1 ½ inches by folding it back.
• Punch a slot above the crease.
• Make 2 rivet holes before the slot and about ¼-inch from the end of the uncut belt and another two holes after the slot. If the crease is folded, the holes should be aligned evenly.
• Apply paint to the vegetable leather depending on your choice.
• Allow the paint to dry overnight or longer if needed.
Step 3: Design the handmade buckle.
• Trim the edges of your chosen image and the scrapbook paper. The two should fit inside the face of the belt buckle.
• Finalize the position of the image, and then secure the image in place using stick glue.
• Glue the rhinestones according to the pattern by using jewel glue. Be creative in the placement of the rhinestones. Jewel glues are available in many craft stores.
• Add glaze over the image and rhinestones. Keep the glaze contained inside the face of the belt buckle. Expect that in the middle of glazing, air bubbles will occur. Get rid of them by popping with a pin. Allow the glaze to dry overnight or longer.
Step 4: After the paint and the glaze has dried overnight, attach the designed handmade buckle to the handmade belt. Then you are ready to strut your unique and creative creation.
