Lemon Squeezy Home

Vinyl Belt Buckle and Interchangeable Belt Tutorial

By

That’s quite the mouthful, isn’t it?

DSCF3280

I’ve wanted to make belts with buckles before, but I have a hard time finding the buckles with the center bars at any craft stores near me.  Sometimes I just don’t feel like paying shipping—you will often end up spending over $5.00 for one buckle that way.  DSCF3277

Thus, the vinyl belt buckle was born.  SO simple!  And I’m going to show you how to make a belt interchangeable!DSCF3294

You can make the other side of the belt with a different fabric to make it reversible, like the one I googled and found here on Tarilyn’s Show’n Tell.

OR you can use velcro to take them off the buckle and then make as many as you’d like to interchange.  DSCF3304

To make the belt buckle, download the free pattern here.

 

You’ll need:

4” x 7” piece vinyl

glue stick

piping (optional)

1” piece velcro

 

First cut out two vinyl buckle pieces using the pattern.  My vinyl is pretty nice, thick stuff, and I only had to buy a really small part.  The back isn’t like the tablecloth vinyl you’ll see sometimes.  See picture below. DSCF3246

DSCF3250

 

Optional step:  add some piping around the buckle outer.  It will give it a more finished appearance and can be super cute with contrasting colors.  I’d glue it and then sew it as close as you could to the edge, if you add this step.  DSCF3252

Place wrong sides together and glue. Let it dry for a few minutes, then sew around the outside circle, and the inside D shapes.  It’s a little tricky, and as you can see, I need a little practice to get it perfectly even!   DSCF3253

DSCF3258

You know, I’d like the buckle to be a little firmer, but I’m unsure of how to do that yet.  If anyone has any ideas, I’d love to hear them.  Maybe another layer in between the two would help, but I don’t think my machine is up for that!

For the belt, I used the Plaid Belt tutorial on Sew4Home.  I just added piping to it, and also adjusted the width to 4” to account for the difference in the size of the buckle.  If you are unsure how to add piping, you can see some tips on my post here, or a really great tutorial is Lindsay’s post here on The Cottage Home.

I used the rounded tip and added what I needed to.DSCF3259

 

Just a quick tip—to get my needle close enough to sew to the left of the piping stitching, I have to adjust my stitch width only over a bit—moving the needle to the left.  I also use my zipper foot. DSCF3263DSCF3264

It can get tricky around the curves, so make sure the needle is down, and then lift the presser foot and turn everything until you get around the curve.DSCF3265DSCF3266

I started on the straight end and curved the piping down.DSCF3267

Then I put the right sides together and followed with the tutorial on Sew4Home.  I left my gap on the long edge close to the straight end so I wouldn’t have to deal with the two ends of the piping ending.  I did not topstitch around the entire thing, though that might be better with the opening you have to stitch closed.  DSCF3269DSCF3271

One more tip:  sew on the side of the fabric that has the piping stitched to it, so you can follow the stitching used to attach the piping. DSCF3273

 

Test your straight end on your buckle, and see where you want to sew the velcro so it can wrap around the buckle center bar.DSCF3295

DSCF3298

DSCF3300

 

I did color around the edge of my vinyl buckle so that it matched better.DSCF3308

That’s it!  Now you can make as many belts as you’d like to that match your new buckle! DSCF3274

And even if you don’t make the buckle, now you can get a center bar buckle and interchange the belts you made with velcro!

DSCF3303

It was hard for me to post this without making another belt to interchange with the buckle and show it in the pictures!  I honestly just didn’t have time.  But at least you know now how to do it if you want to!DSCF3279

Don’t forget to enter your own belts for the contest here.

You can still link up any belts you’ve made on this post here.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. This is such a great idea. I love the fabric choice for the belt, and the piping. The velcro was a nice touch.

  3. I’ve never been much of a belt person before, but these are so cute! I’ll have to try it.

  12. Adorable belts Christie! So creative!

    An idea to make your buckle more stiff– I wonder if you could find some D-rings or even just a metal ring that you could put between the layers as a kind of skeleton to add to the structure.

  17. Love this!!! I’m posting it on my new blog about making stuff (mostly holiday presents right now). If I figure out a way to make it stiffer, I’ll let you know.

  18. Maybe you could add some thick yet bendable plastic into the “casing” made by the inner and outer seam, after sewing them but before closing up the middle bar…

  19. I am going to make this super cute accessory this weekend! Great idea! Thanks for the post! I think I’m going to go sleuthing around the house for something in the vinyl category. As for thickness, you could sew a piece of cereal box cardboard into the layers. I would probably make it a bit smaller than the original, though, so I don’t ruin my needle by stitching through the cardboard. Hope that helps!

  21. so nice ! Thank you for this idea of the belt buckle, I was desperately looking for a belt for me but they were too small !
    Now with your help I will do mine !
    Thank you !!!

  22. to make the center stiffer, use a lid from a plastic container, i.e. yogurt or margerine tub, not that you use margerine anymore … great idea for the buckle. also could be used for a scarf too, instead of a pin.

  23. I have seen some new trendy belt buckles some of them have very nice build quality. I have used some of them and find they can last. You can get these easily from online stores and they are providing discounts also.