I made a belt for Finn today, that is I made four belts, almost identical but different in areas that matter most.
The first one was meant to close with a plastic strap-snap. It looked very manly but had an obvious draw back: it can't be adjusted and fits only one rotund belly at one moment in time. Still, I was petty pleased with myself and decided that fit is only a minor draw back. Plus I paid handsomely for that (stupid) snap.
Well if fit was minor, the fact that the snap can't pass through the belt loops is major. No matter how hard I tried, it wasn't working, so I unpicked and went back to the store for some D-rings (1").
Soon after, Little Belt was born. And little it was, too little in fact to be tied easily around Finn's waist without wrestling and tears. Hint #1 make it large enough to ease the tying.
The other detail that bugged me was the white showing ( as shown on top above). I spent all that time covering the exterior but it's ruined by the "left-over".
Belt #3 was going to be partially reversible, I flipped the fabric over and covered a third of the belt's wrong side. The Large Belt was born, and you guesses it, it turned out way to large, with too much flopping left over. But I was on something and Belt #4, the Good One, is the culmination of much learning. Through all this stumbling in the dark I learned a thing or two, here they are for you if you are still reading this:
I covered the belts using the approximate method described in the free Key Fob pattern. The webbing, to accommodate for a small waist is 1" wide. I cut the pieced fabric strips 1.75" and folded them through the middle, as in the Key Fob pattern. I skipped the fusible web this time, but it would have helped, no doubt.
To create the reversible bit of the belt, which is the opposite side from the D-rings, I discovered that the best thing to do is to sew along each sides to the end of the webbing once, and only after that step to turn the remainder of the fabric strip, pin it and sew all over again over the stitch line you created. Just remember to turn the raw end of the strip under by about 1/2" to clean it up.
Et voila! again you can get a valuable lesson from all my mistakes, which this time could be summarized as:
Don't waste your good Holiday Weekend on some pointless projects, although these would look great in Red White and Blue, Hum....
The belt lesson looks like a fun, if not at times frustrating. Good job! I hope you did something else fun with your family Saturday.
Posted by: Lisa | July 05, 2009 at 06:43 PM
Didn't you make a camera strap like these belts?
Posted by: Tara | July 05, 2009 at 06:59 PM
I think these are awesome...and perfect! I do hate, though, re-doing projects because of mistakes, but I'm always happy in the end that I've figured it out!
Thanks for the lesson! I've been trying to think of something to do with a bit of orange webbing I bought when making my daughter a back satchel.
Posted by: mel | July 06, 2009 at 07:01 AM
Adorable!
Posted by: erica | July 07, 2009 at 05:23 PM
I hate it when my crafting projects don't work out, but then I try to remind myself - hey, I got to craft didn't I? I think the belts look great. Now that you have it down if you decide to do it again it'll go much smoother. Cheers to you for sticking it out.
Posted by: Carrie Ellis | July 11, 2009 at 06:48 AM
girl, you have a deep well of stick-to-it-iveness. i need to tap that well.
Posted by: larissa | July 14, 2009 at 05:43 AM