DIY Leather Skinny Belt

Caley Vitella
by Caley Vitella

After searching for the perfect black leather skinny belt with no luck, I finally just decided to make one myself! This shockingly quick and simple DIY leather skinny belt looks incredible with dresses and my high-waisted denim and has instantly become one of my all-time favorite wardrobe accessories. You can also view the full tutorial on my blog here, or watch the video on my YouTube channel!

Supplies:


Step 1:


Measure your waist and hip measurements to find how long you need to make your belt and where your holes will need to be punched. If you plan to wear this for dresses and jeans, I recommend wearing the actual jeans or dresses you plan to wear the belt with so you can accurately measure along where the belt will lay. If you’re copying the length of a belt whose size you like, you can skip this step.

Step 2:


Adjust your hole punch to match the size of your Chicago screw (I set mine to 1/4”). Make 3 evenly spaced holes starting 1/4” from the top of your leather strip. I made mine 1 1/4” apart. This will make the loop around the belt buckle at the top. (You can see in the image above which pieces belong to which hole.)

Step 3:


With the top of your belt buckle facing the table and the bottom of your leather strip (the rough, textured side) facing up, insert the prong of the buckle into the center hole. Fold over your leather piece and attach with the Chicago screw. Make sure the part you screw (the one with the groove) is on the bottom part of the belt, and the smooth part is on the top for a clean finish. It should match the picture above.

Step 4:


Now it’s time to make your punch holes. If you have a belt to copy off of, you can cheat and simply lay that one over your leather strip to copy the holes. If not, start at your smallest measurement (typically at your waist) that you took earlier and create as many holes as you like to your largest measurement (usually your hips) spaced 1” apart working from the end with the belt buckle to the raw edge. On my belt, I made 7 holes starting at 31” to 37” from the top of the belt, measuring from the buckle prong.

Step 5:


If needed, trim any excess material off the end of your belt to length. Here, you can simply round the end to polish it off, or you can add an end tip like I did. Follow the steps below to do so.

Step 6:


Attach your end tip. As you can see from the first picture, my end tip was a biiiiiit smaller than the leather for my belt. To make it fit, I just cut the ends at an angle in towards the center of the belt to form a point the same length as my end tip. Then I used the world’s tiniest screws (they came with the buckle set) to secure the tip piece to the leather.

Step 7:


Now it’s time to attach your belt loop. I saved this part for last so I could properly try on my belt with my jeans to accurately see where the belt loop on my belt would land in comparison to the belt loops on my jeans (I didn’t want them to overlap, if that makes sense). To prevent the loop from sliding off my belt, I decided to secure it using waxed thread. You don’t need to do this step, but I knew it would bother me- so here’s what I did: I adjusted my hole punch to the smallest setting and created 2 holes 1/4” away from the Chicago screw.

Then I simply sewed around the bottom of the belt loop with my waxed thread, entering and exiting from the back so the knot would be hidden while I was wearing the belt. You don’t have to use waxed thread for this- I just happened to have some on hand and used it for it’s sturdiness. Any strong thread or yarn will do.

That’s it! You just made your own leather skinny belt like a true bad a$$! I love how this piece works perfectly with jeans and dresses, and how easy it is to customize your pieces to work with your wardrobe. I’ve already gotten so much wear out of this thing and it is hands down my favorite accessory to polish off my outfits right now!


Thanks so much for following along!


Happy Making!

-XO-

Caley

The author may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.

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