I love waist belts, especially braided ones as they are more flexible with sizing!
I discovered that my favorite belt was at the end of life when I wore it to the office one day and was leaving a trail of plastic crumbs from the fake leather peeling away. What a mess!
Fake leather has been heralded as an affordable, vegan alternative to real leather and is used in so many things nowadays! Unfortunately, it deteriorates faster than real leather and leaves a trail of microplastics OR the entire item has be thrown in the landfill as they are almost impossible to mend.
Let me show you how to fix an old belt so you don't have to throw the whole thing away and buy a new one!
Supplies
Strips of fabric (or cording/yarn) for braiding
Fabric for the buckle closure (only if it's deteriorated too)
Scrap of interfacing (optional)
Paper (for buckle tracing)
General Sewing Supplies
Make sure to work at a table or somewhere that is easy to clean and wipe down. The plastic bits will shed like crazy while you work! I also recommend wearing a face mask of some kind for protection. I found I was getting headaches while working on this project without one!
I started this project by making several really long fabric tubes and turning them out. But I quickly found that this was overly time consuming and resulted in alot of frustration when it is so long!
So I ended up taking my fabric strips and folding them in quarters, the same way that bias tape looks, with the raw edges tucked in! Just sew along the open edge and you will have a nice long strip of fabric to braid with!
Make more yardage than you think you'll need so you don't have to stop mid braid to add more length.
To start braiding, you will need to find the start of the belt braid. Usually it's at the opposite end of the buckle and will be a folded over piece. I am ONLY replacing the fake leather, so I snip into just that cord that needs replacing.
Before pulling out the damaged cord, I insert my fabric strip into the first portion of the braid. I added a clip at the center point of my fabric stri so that I could center it and have a balanced looking braid. I added safety pins to the ends of my fabric.
Carefully, follow the path of the snipped cord with your new material in the braid. Remove the damaged cord as you go so that you don't lose the braided pattern.
If your fabric strip is too short, just sew an extra strip to the end. I did this by hand to avoid getting plastic on my machine.
Repeat this for as many plastic cords that are in the braid. There were 5 in mine!
I waited until I finished braiding to remove the buckle fixture. Mine will need replacing since it's plastic too. I removed it with my seam ripper and traced the shape to make a pattern.
I used the pattern I traced to cut out a piece of interfacing and cotton to replicate the buckle holder. I decided to use interfacing to make the fabric sturdier, you might be able to skip this if you have a stiff fabric. Make sure to add a slight seam allowance to the fabric and clip along any curves. Iron it flat with the raw edges in, then iron it so it is folded over.
To make the buckle opening, I used my button hole foot on my machine. I measured the opening I traced on my pattern and found a button in my collection that was the same length so I could let it automatically create the right size. Cut AFTER, not before like I did! If you don't have a buttonhole on your machine, you can cut it open and embroider or zig zag over the raw edges.
I tied the finished end of my braid tightly with some leftover cording, trying to keep it as flat as possible. Originally it was held flat with a bit of sticky plastic.
Insert the buckle into the buckle holder (fabric) and sandwich the braid in between the 2 layers. Sew in place, I recommend a longer stitch length to get through all the layers.
To make a belt loop, take some excess cording and sew it into a loop. Make it so that it will be a little loose on the belt. Slide it on the belt and sew it so that it sits tighter or you can tack it to a specific spot so that it never comes loose.
Now you have a brand new belt to wear!
This project really inspired me to think about creating more upcycled belts for my wardrobe, I created a whole Pinterest board if you're feeling inspired too!
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