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Recycle: Denim Reversible Belt

So, you have seen the vest and the skirt refashioned from an outgrown denim dress in my recent 2 tutorials. Today, the third tutorial in the series is about sewing a reversible double-ring belt. The denim material of this belt was originally the bottom hem salvaged from the dress.

Not only skirt, you can get pants’ hems to make this reversible belt too. Just join both hems to make them into 1 long strip and continue the rest of the sewing according to this tutorial.

Check out the tutorial on how to recycle a skirt’s / dress’s hem to a reversible belt after this jump:

Materials:
1. Denim / jeans dress, or any denim skirt, need only the bottom hem
2. Seam ripper
3. Strong thread for denim sewing, find the closest thread color
4. 2″ x 36″ (approx.) the length depends on how wide your hem is.
5. 1″ belt ring, 2 pcs., can be rectangle-ring or D-ring.

Tools:
1. Sewing machine
2. Denim sewing needle #16 or #18
3. Matching color threads
4. Sewing kits and pins
5. Scissors
6. Rotary cutter, quilter’s ruler & rubber mat (optional)

Cut the hem above the sewing line. If it is a double fold hem, avoid cutting the fold.
Cut the hem’s seam at the back portion of the skirt so that the hem can be opened into a strip. You might not need the whole length of the hem, if needed, cut to your preferred measurement.
Unpick all the stitches and press hem open flat.

Cut 2″ wide of new fabric strip with the same length of the hem.
Since the ring is 1″ wide, the belt is going to be 1″ wide too. Adjust the measurement to suit your belt ring if you want to make a wider belt.
Fold and press one of the long edges 1/2″ on the new fabric and hem. If you hem was a double folded, you can use the original fold of the denim hem.
Sew the short edge with 1/2″ seam allowance.
Sew along the long edge with 1/2″ seam allowance too.
Follow by another short seam on the side.
Clip the corners.

Fold the corners in and turn the belt right side out for both corners.
Adjust the corners so they are at a nice right-angle.
[Tips: use a knitting needle or something pointy but blunt to push the corner from the inside.]
Pin the un-sewn long edges together and top stitch near the edge. Put a little attention when sewing it, since the hem is a little curvy due to the A-line skirt construction, you might have to stretch the new fabric a little so that it follows the curve and matches the length of the hem.
Top stitch around the edges and finish off with a center line.

Insert the belt ends into the rings, fold 1″ and sew 2 lines across to hold the rings in place.
If you find sewing this thick pile of fabric is difficult, try the following method that I have mentioned in the skirt tutorial. There is a photo to show how to do it too.
“When you are about to sew a thick pile of fabric, with needle down and presser foot up, insert the cardboard behind the needle. Drop the foot and continue sewing. Sewing from thick to thin layer fabric has lesser problem, if needed, just place the cardboard to the front part of the presser foot to level it and sew slowly until the needle is about to reach the cardboard. Adjust the cardboard to the front and repeat again if needed.”

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