5.04.2012

DIY Colorblock Belt


I own ONE belt. Seriously. One. Sadly, that one belt has gone through a lot and is starting to fall apart (it also has some bright yellow paint splatter on it...occupational hazard).
Instead of getting rid of it, I decided I would spruce it up with some embroidery thread and show you how you can do it too!

DIY Colorblock Belt



What you will need:

  • An old belt
  • Scissors
  • Embroidery thread (The amount and colors you get are up to you. I would suggest getting one of those mixed bags with lots of colors in it-- they're about $5)
  • Elmer's Glue (optional)



  Start by wrapping the your embroidery thread around the belt, keeping it tight and as close to the buckle as possible.
**Before you knot it, take a second and decide how long you want this section of color to be, and make sure the tail of your knot (the part that is normally cut off) will be about an inch or two longer than that section of color.**
The reason for this is that we will be using the end of that tail to begin the next section of color. You can see I didn't do that in this first picture... when I started the belt I had planned on doing it a different way, but I found that the way I described ends up being much easier and the inside of the belt will look much better, too.

Start wrapping your belt in the embroidery thread, making sure to keep it very tight to the belt, and making sure not to have any gaps or overlapping thread. Keep the tail of your knot underneath the wrapped thread, on the inside of the belt, like this: 


When you're satisfied with that section, you should still have some tail hanging out. Use that to start the next color... wrap the next color around the belt the same way you began the first one, but this time you will knot it WITH the tail. Remember to keep enough length in the new tail for that particular section of color. Then, continue wrapping just like before, still keeping the tails underneath. 
This is what the inside of your belt should look like:


Repeat this along the entire belt, with each new color. 
This part is going to take awhile. I was wrapping thread for hours!

When you're at the end, simply knot it twice, cut off the tail, and dab a tiny dot of regular Elmer's Glue onto the knot to help keep it secure.

That's it! 







Now that you know how to make a bitchin' new belt, I wanted to show you some things I've made recently.

First up is this painting that I finished last night. I began the background without having any idea what it was going to turn into. If you look at it up-close, the background looks sort of like a stormy sea. The picture does it no justice.
The writing is a line from U2's song, "Beautiful Day"
I mainly wanted to show this because I'm proud of the improvement in my lettering. That is a huge weak area for me, my lettering tends to look awkward and unbalanced. I am happy with the final result of this one though!

Next up is another painting I did a couple days ago, I just wanted to show it because it was so darn cute. I found a design online that was somewhat similar to this, (I wish I had saved the page, but I didnt), but I tweaked it and made it my own. I'm very happy with the end result. 


I did an adorable polka dot mani, which I will have a tutorial on next week. Stay tuned for that!!



 I also started working on clay Mario characters as jewelry charms and earrings. This is my first batch. Definitely not perfect, but I think it's pretty damn good for my first try! :)


In addition to the Mario charms, I whipped up some bacon earrings, too! Anyone hungry??  These were so fun and easy to make. A friend suggested that I make some sunny side up eggs to go with it, and I shall. 



That's all for now, thanks for reading this far. ;)

xoxo,
Meagan

3 comments:

  1. Ayee! This is so pretty <3 I used to make bracelets like this! :))

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