DEFINITION: 

Typically used to close or hold up a garment, a belt is usually wrapped around one’s middle section (like the waist or hips) and often clasped or fastened at the front, side, or back of the waist.

This is my own definition. Of course you can google this term to find other definitions as well.

And as you can see in the images that accompany my definition, there are many variations on the belt when it comes time to sew one, which I will discuss below. But if I leave anything out, please consider leaving a comment so others can take into account all aspects of the belt as an accessory.

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In Monday’s blog post, I talked about how to make a doll’s shirt like the blue gingham check one shown in the images above on my vintage Bubble Cut Barbie. But did you notice the blue satin belt she’s wearing?

The left and right images show Barbie with her belt tied in the back. The center image shows her with the belt tied at the front.

But how do you make a tie-style belt like this? It’s simple enough. You would make Barbie’s blue satin belt pretty much the exact same way I made Ken’s ascot, which I blogged about on June 9th. (You can always go back and read more about “What ever happened to the ascot?“)

Now when you create a belt that uses a buckle instead of tying at the waist, it can be a little more challenging. You may need to use grommets, which usually requires a special tool (or at least a hammer, for the simplest type of grommets).

And since you may be new to the more advanced concepts related to sewing, you’re probably wishing I had an image of a grommet, since you can’t picture that. Well, here you go:

However belts can be clasped in many ways, and frankly, buckles are one of the more difficult objects to work with when you’re sewing a belt. They’re not impossible, but for a person who’s just learning to sew, I wouldn’t recommend attempting to sew a traditional buckle on your first belt.

D-rings can be a lot less challenging, as far as belt fasteners go. These are literally a pair of D-shaped rings, usually made of metal or plastic. When you sew two of them through a loop on one end of your belt, you can loop the other end of the fabric part of the belt through both D-rings and then back through one of the D-rings, to tighten the belt.

I created a diagram to show you how to loop a belt through D-rings to tighten it. Here’s my diagram (hopefully it’s not too confusing):

There are a number of other ways to create a belt’s clasp. Backpacks use a pinch-and-pull clasp, sort of like a seatbelt. Some belts use one of these as well, and I think those types of clasps are fairly inexpensive (but I’ve never sewn one onto a belt before — I’ve only repaired the ones on my students’ backpacks, when I was a school librarian).

One I’ve used with my dolls’ Renaissance costumes is a bar and ring style toggle clasp. Have a look at the one that hold’s Ken’s Sword and sheath on his waist, for example:

For the sewist, a belt’s method of closure is really a matter of creativity. How do you want to close your belt? There are so many ways! You can even use a snap or a button!

And then there’s the question of matching or contrasting fabric…

Do you want your belt to be made of the same fabric as the garment it goes with? Or do you want your belt to really stand out?

If you’re new to sewing, a ribbon makes a great belt and doesn’t require any stitching at all. However, it’s a good idea to dab some Fray Check on the cut ends of the ribbon so they don’t fray during playtime.

You can sew the ribbon to the garment itself, and then you don’t have to worry about adding a closure device; you will be able to close the belt with snaps or velcro as part of the garment’s natural closure.

That’s what I did here:

You can also stitch a decorative notion (like a button, pendant, or sequin) to the front of the garment, tacking the ribbon onto the garment in the front only, but also allowing the child to practice tying bows by leaving the ribbon open at the back for play time.

That’s what I did here:

The ribbon-belt you see above makes enough of a closure, that a little girl who is learning to sew can simply use this method to close her handmade doll dresses, until she’s ready to learn how to sew snaps and other forms of closures.

DISCUSSION QUESTION: 

Have you ever tried to sew a belt for your doll clothes? And if so, what method of closure did you use? What method of closure do you recommend? And if you struggled with a belt, what was the most difficult part of making it?

Please leave your answers in the comments section.

Come back to this blog post at the end of next week, so you can see what comments other people left!

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Chelly Wood and the ChellyWood.com website are not affiliated with any of the doll or toy companies mentioned in this blog post, but Chelly enjoys designing her doll clothes to fit a variety of dolls. To learn more about the doll companies mentioned in today’s post, please visit the doll or toy company’s website.