Now that I'm done bragging, let me tell you how I did it. ^ - ~
So, the first thing to after you've got the right belt blank material (mine came from ebay and is about 2" wide) is make sure it's long enough. I got 2 yards, which I knew was more than I needed but that's a good place to start. I then cut the belt blank in half and using small clamps and masking tape worked out the right angle for the belt in the front and back. I then sliced a small bit off the belt on both sides in the part I decided would be the back. I then glued a bit of pleather to the joining point of the two pieces. When that dried, I discovered it wasn't sturdy enough to keep the edges from moving, so I glued a small bit of metal I had from a belt I'd dismembered to make it sturdier. That's how you get this:
After that I glued the metal studs to the top of the belt at intervals of about 1.75", which seemed to be what worked for me. Make sure to avoid putting studs under where the belts cross over in the front, or in a place that's on the line or whatnot because it'll look dumb.
Then I did a lot of staring in the mirror and looking at pictures to figure out how long the belt should be after the cross in the front. Most pictures show only 1 stud past the cross, but I decided on 2 because I thought it looked better. Then I carefully experimented with cutting the leather into the kind of point I would need on the extra belt leather I had. Good choice! It's HARD to cut straight and warps and is generally a pain. What eventually worked was drawing the line in its entirety and slicing along it with an exacto knife WITH a straight-edge (protractor, in my case) so you can't accidentally wibble the line. Then after going over the line about 3 times I used me sharpest jewelry scissors to finish the job. Looks kinda like this:
I did it on my cutting mat which made it pretty easy to get the angles right--1block is half an inch, so I marked the middle of the belt at the end and then 2 blocks down on either side and drew the connecting line between them.
After that was done, I took the silver belting I showed in an earlier post and sliced it down the middle. It was already folded over on the back in a way that made it super simple to cut in half. Then I had to glue the silver to the back of the belt so that it stuck perhaps 3 milimeters past the edge? Something that looked right. Then I cut little triangles out of the silver belting so that it could bend around the edges of the belt. And that looks like this:
from the back anyway.
that's a wider shot of the back. Me smarter than me and remember to take the masking tape you used to mark where the belts should cross BEFORE you glue other shit to it. I'm just saying.
it looks like this when you're done. And by 'this' I mean 'awesome.' And that's E-6000 I've been using, that's some good glue. Stuff STAYS glued, and what more can you ask for?
one tricky thing is making sure the edges of the belt adhere at the tips and whatnot. These tiny clamps are adorable and perfect for this. Note that I shoved some craft foam in there so that the tiny clamps don't leave tiny clamp marks in the process. I could probably have gotten by without that since the belt leather is tough enough, but who wants to be wrong?
The final step I haven't taken pictures of yet. Sue me. I cut some velcro on a slant and put a strip on either side of where the belt crossed over, and then followed directions and WAITED 24 HOURS before touching it. Seems to be holding for now.
Next up, skirt work. I hemmed the hell out of everything already, so now it's a matter of gathering and sewing. Hopefully that'll get done tomorrow.
Hopefully.
~Raiphin
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