DIY Lace Belt: Playing With Pastels

Hi lovelies! Here's a fun DIY where you get to recycle or as I'd like to call it, "upcycle", some of your stuff. In this case, I chose one of my old belts. A month ago a good friend of mine invited me to a thanksgiving purple themed party. I didn't want to get a new dress given the fact that I went on a thrift spree the previous week so I thought why not take out the LBD and simply add accents to it? Besides, the purple lace at the department store was waving its arms to catch my attention. I'm pretty sure that laces do not have arms but I bought it anyway for my own crafty-wacko sake and so this project was born.

TOOLS AND MATERIALS:

-  belt

-  needles

-  thread

-  scissors

-  laces

-  ribbons

-  bobby pins

-  blade or cutter

STEP 1: Get your belt and wipe off any dirt or dust. Check the buckle as well. If there is any, get a sand paper and scrape it off. Paint the buckle with clear nail polish to avoid the rust from spreading out unto the ribbons and lace later on. This is applicable if your belt has been sitting in your closet for a century or so... just kidding. In my case, the belt was still in good condition so I skipped this one out.

STEP 2: Using a blade or cutter, cut the sown part of the belt with the round 'holder' thing that keeps your belt secure once you put it on.

STEP 3: Slide the 'holder' out.

STEP 4: Cut it so that it lays flat in one horizontal line. This makes the sewing easier. Get your ribbon, wrap it around the 'holder' and sew. Then just connect the two ends back together. Keep it aside.

STEP 5: Get your belt and wrap the ribbon around it. Make sure that you tuck in the edges for a cleaner look. Use a hair clip or a bobby pin to hold the ribbon for you. 

STEP 6: In here, I started wrapping and sewing the ribbon two inches away from the buckle because the flap that holds the 'holder' will make sewing a little hard for you.

STEP 7: Once you've sewn about three inches along the way, slowly pull the ribbon closest to the tip of the belt and tuck it under the flap.

STEP 8: Continue sewing until you've covered the entire belt. See to it that you leave an allowance of about two centimeters from the tip of the belt. 

STEP 9: Pull the ribbon out of the flap again and this time wrap the lace around the ribbon then sew for two inches of length.

STEP 10: Like what we've done earlier, slowly pull the lace and ribbon as closest as possible to the buckle and tuck it under the flap. Continue sewing and cover the entire belt. If you must, use a bobby pin to hold the ribbon and lace for you while you sew.

STEP 11: Leave about 4 centimeters of the lace making sure that it is longer than the ribbon we've cut off earlier.

STEP 12: Fold it in and carefully sew it at the back side of your belt.

STEP 13: Get the 'holder' we've covered in ribbon earlier and slide it back under the flap.

STEP 14: Sew the flap against the belt to secure the 'holder' and keep it from moving.

STEP 15: Using a leather puncher (or if you don't have one you can use a clean rust-free nail and hammer) punch out holes in your belt. It would be great if you could track down where the original holes are. You can do this by using a bobby pin. Run it down the body of the belt where the original holes are supposedly located. If you feel a sudden bump or depression, start punching there.

STEP 16: Voila we're finished! Hooray!

Here's a clearer shot of our finished product. You can use any color combination you want. You may also add studs and beads. Get creative. If you're not that much into sewing nor have the patience to do so, you may use fabric glue instead. Seriously, if I had one at that time I would have used it. It took me hours to finish this. I'm such a slowpoke at sewing. Haha. Oh well, I need more practice!

Oh look! They match the color of my toenails! *eyes twinkling*

I'd love to hear from you. Please feel free to comment below and let me know if you loved this DIY. If you do decide to make your own lace belts, do tweet me a picture and use #CRAFTSWITHANNE! I'd be so excited to see what you've done with your belts. And while you're at it, follow me on Twitter and Instagram too! 

Till next time!