Quick and Easy D-Ring Belt (with Tutorial!)

DSC05880 by jungrrl, on Flickr

So, as is the case with most Craftsters (I assume), I'm making some of my holiday gifts. Things are verrrrry busy around here in Craftster-land with sweets being gone for maternity leave, so I needed quick simple gifts that I could get done easily after working a long day. I thought that these belts would be perfect for my younger sister and cousins.

What you'll need:
A pair of d-rings
Fusible Interfacing
Fabric (either a long skinny piece, or enough short skinny pieces to make a long skinny piece)
Matching thread

That's it!

So for the belt I made the tutorial with, I just cut one piece from the end of my fabric (heck yea Alexander Henry in the remnant bin!) selvedge to selvedge. That's too skinny for me but one of the recipients is a rail so I figure it'll be ok for her. Make sure your piece is the right width. Double the size of the D-ring and add about 1/2 an inch. So if your D-ring is 2inches, you'd need 4.5 inches. Cut a piece of fusible interfacing the same size (Some people say not to have the fusible in the seams but that's too much work for me. Lips sealed

DSC05864 by jungrrl, on Flickr

Iron on your interfacing

DSC05865 by jungrrl, on Flickr

You can do this two ways, really but I'll show you one way first and then go back and explain the second way.

Fold in half with right sides together and sew into a tube

DSC05867 by jungrrl, on Flickr

Turn inside out. The safety pin trick is awesome! Just attach a safety pin securely to one end. Pull the right side out through the wrong side... kinda like this.

DSC05868 by jungrrl, on Flickr

Iron Iron Iron! Make sure that the sewn side isn't folded in on itself or your belt will be skinnier than you want!

DSC05872 by jungrrl, on Flickr
Now, normally I would have top-stitched on either edge, but I JUST realized I forgot! Cheesy

Oh well, it looks nice this way, too!

Now, here are your ends

DSC05873 by jungrrl, on Flickr

One will turn into the end you put through the loops. Just fold it in on itself and sew up (I don't like a straight edge so mine is sort of pointy).

DSC05874 by jungrrl, on Flickr

The other end is for the D-rings. If you have a non-straight end and have a preference of which way the point goes figure it out now. Cheesy

At this point you can still configure it mostly how you'd like. So put it around you and see. Then you're going to fold the other end over twice with the D-rings in the middle. Like so:

DSC05877 by jungrrl, on Flickr

Make sure you sew forward once and then sew in the same place backward. That way it's very secure. I do this twice. One near the fold and one near the end of the fabric.

Voila!

DSC05880 by jungrrl, on Flickr

Ok so the other way to do this is.... (Sorry, not many pictures!)

Fold in half with wrong sides together. On the folded side, top-stitch (I kept the edge of the fabric in line with the side of the machine's foot, but you can do it whatever size you'd like). Then fold the loose ends in on each other. This is kind of hard because you need to make sure that they will fit into the D-ring and also that you're keeping a consistent size all the way along the belt! I would suggest finishing the non-D-ring end of the belt at the same time. Pin and top-stitch like the other side. Finish as above.

One thing to make note of if you do it this last way.. This can happen

DSC05919 by jungrrl, on Flickr
Because that end isn't sewn together except at the top-stitch it's possible for the edge to tuck up over itself when you're sewing up that side. Just be careful.

DSC05924 by jungrrl, on Flickr