Spent a lazy Sunday pulling apart the magazines that have piled up over the past couple months…and came across this Lucky Magazine feature in one of their issues from a little while ago (not sure which one).  Sure, P.S. I Made This did a DIY of the obi-style belt back in February, but this is a little bit of a different style – plus includes some sources for buying the leather.  Here are the sources mentioned in the blurb above:

MJTrim.com

SDTradingCo.com

LeatherUnltd.com

All great sources for leather, but I would also add:

TandyLeatherFactory.com

(with stores throughout the U.S., this is THE place to get leatherworking supplies, tools, hardware, and skins)

SBearsTradingPost.com

(variety of exotic leathers and hides)

JustLeather.com

(includes frogskin and metallic hides)

HideHouse.com

(extremely high-quality, full-sized hides for a variety of end uses)

And, my absolute, all-time favorite:

Sommers.com

(beautiful, amazing array of FAUX leathers and manmade vinyls!!  Yay!)

My Tips: When using lambskin or lightweight leather in a loose, tied belt like in the picture – all you need to do is cut and tie.  (Yay for simplicity!  But don’t ever ever EVER use your the same scissors/rotary cutter you use on fabric on leather…that’s a sure way to blunt your instruments.:-(  Have dedicated leather-cutters if you can!  [I use my kitchen shears that I use to cut other stuff in the kitchen with b/c they’re tough and can really withstand the abuse…but I’ll never cut fabric with them! LOL])

If you want a more structured belt, say like Gucci’s S/S 2011 RTW metallic python version with tassels – finishing the edges properly will make all the difference between looking “home-made” and “couture.”  If you’re using real leather, don’t forget to burnish the cut edges!!!  (What is burnishing? you may ask.  A how-to coming in a future post, chickadees!)

 

xoxox
Carly

Gucci runway photo Style.com, Yannis Vlamos / GoRunway.com

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