How to Make The Braided Fringe Belt - Video 1 Introduction & Materials Needed

While my body and mind are still recovering from child birth (without a doubt simultaneously the most beautiful/loved filled and hardest/most painful thing I have ever done ) we will still have a fun project until I am back up to dancing. A costuming project!!! I will show you how I made this Braided Fringe-y Dance Belt.

This is the belt shown here
https://www.patreon.com/posts/50699595

To make this belt you will need:

Short version (for those who are ready to either shop their stash at home, or ready to go out and collect pieces). I go by meters, because Canada, but you if you go by yards it will still work as recommended.

Straight pins
Craft Clips (optional)
Scissors for fabric
1m Heavy weight Buckram
1m light weight felt
Depending on amount of colours of lycra or stretch mesh, 1 meter of each colour (or if doing just one colour, 2 meters of said colour would be fine)
Matching thread(s) for chosen fabric(s)
Hand sewing needles
If using a sewing machine then either stretch needles size 90, or universal size 90
Chainette fringe (Depending on your size/Hip width, approximately anywhere from 1 to 2 meters of each colour or per layer of fringe)
Sewing machine with zig zag & straight stitches (optional)
Embellishment/decoration/sparkly things!!!

Optional pieces:
Cats to add cat fur to everything (or dogs or any other pets/livestock in your life)
Coffee/tea for sanity/motivation/functionality


The next videos will cover content in this order:
[  ] Making the belt base & figuring out sizing
[  ] Covering the belt base
[  ] Making the braids and placing them
[  ] Attaching the braids and fringe to the covered belt base

[  ] Embellishment
[  ] Lining the belt (optional)


Long winded version of list,
Straight pins and/or large craft clips
I use both and as such recommend both, but you do you :)

Hand sewing needles, I recommend a variety pack with various sizes and types, it's "handy" to have.

If using a sewing machine you will need universal needles size 90 and/or stretch needle size 90. You can sew your stretch fabrics with a universal needle, but nothing works better on stretch fabrics than a stretch needle in my experience.

Thread to match your exterior fabric choice(s).

Heavyweight Buckram (approximately 1 meter)

Crafting felt (approximately 1 meter)

Buckram typically only comes in white, I also use white felt as well because I find it easier to see what I am doing.

Lycra/spandex (ideally for dancewear or swimwear) - 4 way stretch
Depending on your design choice, you will need anywhere from 1 to 5 colours.
I am using three contrasting lycras for the braid and with 3 matching chainette fringes. I will be using a 4th fabric choice for the belt base cover.
You could use another solid lycra, or a stretch mesh over a lycra.
I do not recommend any lycra/spandex blends (ie. Cotton spandex knit, or bamboo lycra knit) for this project.

Depending on your height/size/width you will want the fabrics you choose for the braid to be approximately 50 to 60 inches wide.
If you are new to sewing/fabric fabric comes in various widths. For example Most quilting cottons are a standard 45 inches wide, while many "fashion" fabrics range from 50 to 60 inches wide but there are exceptions to the rule so always be sure to check.
You will most likely not need more that 1 meter of each colour. I am someone who tends to be anxious about making a mistake and running out and then not being able to get anymore of a said fabric (because yes this has happened before) so I tend to like to have extra. The extra will also be great to have if you later decide to make a coordinating bra/top, or maybe a bathing suit.. or who knows. Either way I usually hoard some extra lol.

Finally you will need some chainette fringe.
The first one I made was a pretty serendipitous experience. I had already hoarded the 3 neon lycra colours I used, without any real plans for them, I just thought they were pretty and neon can be hard to find. So I bought them and put then in a bin.

I was out foraging in one of the local to me fabric stores months later and saw that they had chainette fringe in colours very similar, but each colour was a different length. It was looking at them that I got the idea for the belt. I brought them home and they were luckily a pretty close colour match to the lycras. I chose to base the belt with black for maximum contrast and pop.

This time I went to that same store to see what fringes they had and what lycras. Magically again they had 3 chainettes fringes and I found 3 lycras that matched well enough for my eye, although this time the fringe length differences between the colours is far less drastic. It is okay we will work with what we got.

My hips are currently 48 inches around (measuring around the widest point of the hips/butt), and my upper hip (measuring around the top of where the belt will sit is about 43 inches). I know then I will need approx 40.inches of chainette fringe per layer, which factoring in it losing some length when stitched on, approximately 1.25meters per row of fringe).

That being said I am telling you how I made my belt for you to either follow for a similar result or for you to use the methods to make your own design. You could do the belt with just 1 layer of fringe, or in a completely solid colour etc. Personally I think this design done in a solid colour or shade like black with lots of bling would look so sharp. I myself might eventually make a solid black one. Hmmm, so many ideas
...

Final step will be embellishment. I will make a separate video to talk about different embellishments that you can use.

Feel free to use this as a guide and work within your own budget and your own creative ideas and expression. There are many ways to make belts and many design ideas, this just happens to be one of my ideas and how I base my belts :) It is by no means the only way or the best way. I encourage you if you are not a fan of this belt when it is finished to experiment with other belt base options and methods. :)

The nice thing about this belt is it's easy adjustability, because of its side ties if will work for you at a variety of sizes with minimal effort.

I recommend working on a large table top or on a cleared piece of floor. I tend to prefer to cut my pieces out on the floor for most projects.

Thank you so much for learning with me and I hope you enjoy this project. This is my first time making sewing/costuming videos so it will be a learning curve for all of us:)