I've been thinking about making some kids belts for a while now, I bought some little loop things at Geoffs Emproium years ago always intending to do something with them — and I finally found some motivation!
I found this tutorial for a double ring toddler belt on the Prudent Baby website (definitely a site worth looking at if you have a few spare hours! It's hard not to look away once you start...) which reminded me that I had the rings, now all I needed was some motivation!
My idea had always been for the belt to use velcro rather than the double rings, I find that it holds better and doesn't slip out and it 'grows' with your child just as easily.
All up this belt took about half an hour and just requires straight stitching.
How-to after the jump...
Materials
You will need:
- 1 x Loop
- Iron on interfacing
- 2 complimenting fat flats (a large-ish square of fabric) OR
- 1 fat flats and enough of a plain fabric for the backing OR
- 1 fat flats for the front and the back
- Matching thread & sewing machine (unless you're feeling crazy and want to sew by hand...)
- 15cm of velcro
Step One:
Measure the tummy of your little tike, jot it down and add on another 20cm, jot that number down too. Remember that the width of your loop will also count to the overall belt size. Measure the height of your ring as this will need to be the width of your finished belt.
For my belt: Grace's tummy was 58cm + 20cm = 78cm
For my loop: 3cm high
Step Two:
Cut strips of your fabric the height of your ring, plus another 2cm for the width and as long as the measurements you took before (mine were 5cm wide strips measuring 80cm long).
Note: I chose to do mine with a plain fabric on the back, if I was going to make this belt again, I would do it with the same colour or a complimenting pattern. I like it because it's simple, just another way to do it.
Step Three:
Iron on your interfacing onto one of your strips and trim to tidy. I chose to do mine on the patterned front side, but it makes no difference.
Step Four:
Trim the corners off the belt, it makes the next step way easier.
Step Five:
Iron over the edges 1cm on both the front and back pieces. You can pin them if you like, but if you had the iron on hot enough it shouldn't matter too much.
Step Six:
Pin and sew your velcro onto the RIGHT side of your belt. This will be the OUTSIDE colour. Put the scratchy side at the edge (this is so that jumpers won't get stuck in it when your child gets bigger and more of the velcro is exposed).
Measure 10cm from the end and pin the fluffy velcro as shown. Stitch into place.
Step Seven:
Pin your belt pieces WRONG sides together. Pin from one end all the way along both sides, if you get to one end and it's a bit longer or shorter, just fold it in so it's tidy and both are the same length. No-one be will the wiser....
Step Eight:
Start stitching your pieces together. If you machine has a setting that you can have the needle hard right, use this setting so you can get nice and close to the edge. Top stitch all the way around your belt, finishing with a couple of backstitches.
Step Nine:
Grab your loop and thread it through a little as shown. Pin into place making sure the join will be on the inside. Sew over it a few times to make sure it's secure.
Finished!
Pat yourself on the back, you just made a cute belt for your little tike!
3 comments:
i saw this on the prudent baby site and put it on my list of things to make- will def do it now that you've put pics for beginners like me to follow! thanks, yours looks great :)
no worries! Glad you like it — I found it was easier for Grace to do up with the velcro, less asking Mummy to help when she goes to the bathroom, haha =)
And velcro makes it much quicker to UNDO the belt - always a plus when they need the toilet 'NOW MUMMY!'. :D
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