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Leather Obi Belt with 3D Flower

When I was making the belt for my high school reunion outfit I was rushing that day to get it finished in time to wear to the reunion. It was a little rough so I wanted to give it another shot, this time with a bit of a variation (also made using pieces of a former leather jacket). I altered the pattern for the petals and made them into a 3D flower.

I started out by making the petals of the flower. I altered the original petal design to be wider so I could fold it over and glue (using E6000 -- I'm sure there's some sort of leather glue that would be better, but I just wanted to stick with what I had on hand this time).

I altered the direction of the fold so the petals wouldn't all be exactly the same. Hint: Only use a tiny bit of glue, using too much will interfere when sewing them on to the belt.

I clamped them and let them dry overnight. Bonus = I finally found a use for the cute, tiny clamps I picked up on impulse one day -- I'm glad I did, they were exactly what I needed!

I cut out the other pieces in the same way as the previous obi belt, except with wider ties and added seam allowance around the edges of the main belt pieces.

I sewed a triangle piece to each side of the rectangular piece, making sure right sides were together, opened the seam allowance on the back side, top stitched on either side of the seam and clipped some of the excess away at the edges.

I folded over 1/2" around the outer edges and top stitched.

When transitioning from the triangular to the rectangular piece there was some excess bunched up, so I cut a small slit, close to, but not touching the edge, overlapped the sides and sewed.

Then I sewed the ties to the ends of each triangular piece.

I arranged the petals for the flower and secured them with just a tiny dab of glue. I used a spice jar (the perfect size!) to hold them down until they dried.

After the glue was dry I sewed the inner corners of the petals onto the belt.

And I had my new belt!

I really love this version of the belt. I ended up breaking three leather needles making this one, but I think it was worth it!

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I'll be linking up to these fabulous link parties:

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Make it Great Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Upcycled Awesome -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Tuesday Talent Show -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Create and Share -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Show and Share Day -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- Pity Party -- Design Dazzle -- Saturday - Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

Suede Flower Leather Obi Belt Tutorial

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday filled with gratitude, family, laughter and love! I know mine was. And now I'm fully embracing all the Christmas and holiday decorations, music, lights, projects, etc, etc. Bring it on! (Of course at the same time I'm kind of freaking out that I don't know what I'm going to do for gifts for everyone -- especially since our gift budget is basically non-existent. I think most are going to involve some stash-liquidation on my part!)

Today I also realized that I never posted about the dress and belt I made for my 10 year high school reunion. Here's the photo of the final product:

Today I'm going to share the tutorial for the leather and suede obi belt.

I started with a black leather jacket and a brown suede mini skirt I found at the thrift store on a 50% off day. (That's a great way to get leather at an affordable price, and reduce/reuse/recycle!) A while back I had cut out the lining, zippers, facings, etc and cut them into non-sewn-together pieces.

One of the things I love about leather is that it doesn't unravel or fray, so you can leave the edges raw. Of course folded and sewn edges have a more professional/finished look, but sometimes I'm just glad to be able to cut a corner here and there. :)

I started out by cutting the pieces using my quilting ruler and rotary cutter (I LOVE those things!).

Main rectangle: 5" wide x 17.5" long
(I'm tall and have a long torso, so I would suggest about 4" wide for a woman of average height. Also the length was my waist circumference in inches, divided by two, adding two inches, and adding one inch for seam allowance.)
Triangle pieces: 5" wide for 1/2", then down to a point x 12" long
(I just estimated this one, but it ended up being about 3/4 of half of my waist circumference, plus 1" for seam allowance.)
Ties: 3/8" wide x 20" and 18" long
(I totally estimated and just used the longest piece of leather I had. This is how long they ended up. One side is longer because the flower is slightly to the side and the straps tie at the center of the flower.)
Flower petals: I drew the shape of a flower petal and traced it with a fabric pencil onto the suede. I flipped the pattern over for a couple of the petals so they all would not be exactly the same shape. I cut them out on the inside of the pencil line so I wouldn't have to worry about trying to wash/rub it off.

Be sure to use leather needles. They are stronger and sharper than regular needles. I would also recommend using a thicker, stronger thread. It will help it all hold together well, and look better, too. If you have one, use a teflon or roller presser foot as well, since the suede side of leather tends to grip as it's going through the sewing machine and one of those feet will help it glide smoothly. (I didn't have one, but it still worked out pretty well, with some concerted effort.)

Start out by sewing the triangle pieces to the sides of the rectangle piece. Leather can't be pinned in the normal way, so I stuck pins straight in, inside the seam allowance (since once you put a hole in leather, even a tiny one, it won't go away).

After that, top stitch the seam on either side, both to give it a finished look and to lay the seam allowance down flat.

Then stitch all the way around the outer edge of the belt. For a more finished look you can simply fold over the edge and top stitch just like the other seam. Why didn't I do that? I have no idea... :) But if you do, be sure to add the extra width to the rectangle and triangle pieces to make sure your belt ends up the width that you want.

For the ties, trim the point off the triangle pieces to make it 3/8". Place the tie under the point, overlapping about 3/4" and sew it on by stitching back and forth several times in a straight line.

Visualize dividing the main rectangular part of the belt into thirds and place the flower petals on one of the dividing lines (so it's to one side, instead of in the middle). Glue them down with a small amount of glue (I used super glue since I needed something that would dry quickly) placed near the center of the petal, so the glue will not be in the way when you sew. (I took this photo prior to sewing, since I was testing out how it would look, and I wanted to remember the placement of the petals when it came time to sew them on)

Using a free-motion presser foot (so you can turn smoothly while sewing -- see below), sew the petals on by stitching along the inside of the edge for each one.

Source

And then you are done!

Trash to Tool Caddy - Using a Six Pack Carrier

Recently my family and I picked up some Japanese take-out. They sent home our miso soup in a six pack carrier (way to reduce/reuse guys!).

After dinner I got to thinking that I could just cover it with some pretty paper and make something useful out of it. So I did just that.

I started by taping the carrier so it wouldn't fold up, then cut out a piece of paper big enough to wrap around the carrier, leaving a little extra at the top and bottom edge. Then I broke out my trusty Paper Mod Podge and, using a foam brush, glued the paper to the carrier.

Then I folded the edges over at the top and bottom. I cut out two pieces of paper for the handle area, gluing one at a time and folding them through the middle to the other side.

I also covered all the raw edges on the top and sides of the handle with paper. I held up a piece of cardstock to where I wanted it to cover the handle and traced the shape. Then I cut out the handle and traced a second piece (one for each side).

I measured the height, width and depth of the inside sections, cut out pieces of cardstock, and scored them (by running the cutting blade very lightly over the cardstock) to make them easier to fold accurately.

I glued on the cardstock pieces for the handle then inserted the rectangular pieces into the carrier (in a triangular shape to make them easier to get in), opened them out and glued the sides together.

I ended up with this:

From trash to treasure! I seriously love it.

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I'll be linking up to these fabulous link parties:

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Upcycled Awesome -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Tuesday Talent Show -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Create and Share -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Show and Share Day -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- Pity Party -- Design Dazzle -- Saturday - Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

Stash-Busting September

This month I'm participating in T-Shirt Diaries' "Stashbusting September". All the bloggers taking part are agreeing to not buy any craft supplies for the whole month of September and only use what we have on hand. Things for businesses are permitted, but not for personal use.

Since it's already going along with my project-acquisition fast I figured I would participate in this as well. Maybe it will help me stick with it -- I've been tempted for sure!

Stick with me and we'll see what all I can accomplish!

Simple Shirt Refashion - Dye and Gathers

I hope you all are having a wonderful week so far. My sister is in town from out of state and we had a big(ish) family dinner on Sunday with my parents and all their posterity. There's not a huge number of us yet, but the cousins had a great time playing together so there was a lot of commotion. It feels so good to be living near my family again.

I recently completed another shirt refashion from my stash. This is a shirt I picked up during my Macy's clearance rack raid I talked about in this post.

I loved the square neckline and embroidery, but not the white, especially with small children who love to grab me with messy hands. Also the flutter sleeves were not very flattering.

So I dyed it using Rit dye in purple. I used the stove top method, which was rather tiring because I had to stand there and stir the entire time (nearly 30 minutes). The shirt itself is cotton, so it took the dye well, but the embroidery and the thread used to sew the shirt together is synthetic so it did not take the dye at all. That was okay with me since I did want to keep the contrast of the embroidery.

Then, using elastic thread, I sewed all around the edge of the sleeve to make it a puff sleeve instead of a flutter sleeve. I thought I'd share a tip for using the elastic thread: tie it off so it doesn't pull out. [This may totally be a given that everyone knows already, but I haven't seen anyone else say it, so I thought I would just in case.]

Leave the beginning and end tails of the thread long (at least a few inches) so it's easier to work with.

Using a needle, bring the regular thread through to the side with the elastic thread.

Tie in a knot several times and trim excess short.

And now I have a shirt in my favorite color! Yay for purple!

Have any of you used dye for your projects?

30 Second Belt Fix

I love the look of a skinny belt over a button-up shirt, or a shirt and light cardigan. So I was excited when I found one during a trip to the thrift store, the same trip that I found this belt. (Yes, it's been sitting around that long... which is why I'm on a project-acquisition fast.) The problem was that it was too big, by about 6" or more.

Before

Then as I was about to walk out the door to church I decided I needed the belt to complete my outfit and just went for it. I put it on and marked where I would need to make a hole to fit just right and stabbed it with an awl.