Gathered Belt Tutorial

This is my first tute, guys, so bear with me on this. If I say anything that doesn't make an ounce of sense, please feel free to contact me. With that being said, shall we commence?




I love belts. Particularly wide stretchy ones. I wear them with skirts, tunics, cardigans; you get the idea, right? Well since it's very difficult for me to find a nice coral belt along those guidelines, why not create one? So I did and I love it. Here's what you need:

(just kidding about the mug!!)

MATERIALS:
-Elastic, any width. I used 1.25"
-Long strip of fabric. You'll need twice the length of your elastic measurement. I used a vintage sheet.
-Snap fasteners, I don't recommend sew-on


MEASUREMENTS:
-Measure your natural waist or where you'd like for the belt to rest. Subtract 3 from this number. Cut your elastic this length.

-Take the width of your elastic and multiply it by 2 and add 1 inch. I had 1.25", so 1.25*2=2.5+1=3.5. This will be the width of your belt fabric.
Take the length of your elastic, multiply it by 2, and add 1 inch. This is your belt fabric length. Cut your fabric to these measurements.

-You will also need 2 pieces of your belt fabric the same width that you cut your fabric and 3" long.



Now that we've gotten all that tedious stuff out of the way, let's get crackin'!

MAKING GATHERED BELT:

Take your fabric strip and fold it right sides together. Sew a quarter inch, leaving both ends unsewn.

Now turn your tube right sides out. This may take a moment to do. If you have a loop turner or safety pin, you can speed up the process a bit.

Once that is done. Iron your strip flat.

Put a safety pin on the end of your elastic like so. And feed it through one end of your tube. Keep feeding it until the other end of you elastic reaches the bottom end of your belt tube. Once it does, attach a safety pin through the fabric and elastic so that your elastic won't get lost.

And continue feeding the other end of elastic through the open end of the tube. When you're done attach a safety pin to that end just like you did the bottom end.

It's starting to look like a belt! Now grab both ends of belt and stretch it a few times to adjust the gathers.

Take out the safety pin on one side, making sure you hold the ends so you don't lose the elastic, pin, and sew a quarter inch seam over the opening. Do the same to the other end.
Set aside.



ATTACHING BELT ENDS:

This part is a tad difficult to explain. I'm going to demonstrate on one piece of fabric and leave the other in tact, so you can compare the measurements.

Take your 2 fabric scraps that are the same width of your belt and 3" long and iron them flat with right sides facing down.

Fold in a quarter of an inch on both 3" sides. Iron down.

Fold the width of your fabric in half and iron a crease in it. Then open it back out.

Take your edges and fold them to the crease you just created. Iron them.

Take the sides that were originally 3" and fold them together and iron.

Repeat with other fabric.

Pin ends to your belt piece.

Sew 1/8" seam on the belt.

Sew the other three sides 1/8" or 1/4" seam. Repeat on other side.

Mark points on the back of your belt edges for placement of snaps. I used 2, but you can accommodate the width of your belt.

Attach your snaps according to package directions.

Wear and enjoy!
I hope this all makes sense! Happy sewing!!