21 May 2018

Old Belt, New Life

I like to bring new life to old objects. I think eveyone, and everything, deserves a second chance.

Today, my willing subject is this belt:

upcycle broken belt, recycle, blah to TADA!
It was an inexpensive find that I used many times as a cute accessory and to hold up troussers that were a little too big for me.

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At some point, my default belt hole just got bigger and bigger, and broke beyond repair. Sigh.

Here's how I turned this blah into a TADA!:

upcycle broken belt, recycle, blah to TADA!, crafts, black belt, bag charm, beads, tassel
I made it into a key chain! 

Let me show you how I did it.

upcycle broken belt, recycle, blah to TADA!, crafts, black belt, bag charm, beads, tassel
I knotted some embroidery floss in the middle of my metal snap hook.

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Then I cut a piece of my broken belt and placed it on the metal snap hook.

upcycle broken belt, recycle, blah to TADA!, crafts, black belt, bag charm, beads, tassel
I used hot glue to stick both sides together. Notice that I sandwiched the embroidery floss in between the leather.

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I used a binder clip to keep the leather in place while the glue dried. Then I strung on some wooden beads (these were rescued from an old necklace) onto the string.

upcycle broken belt, recycle, blah to TADA!, crafts, black belt, bag charm, beads, tassel
I made a long tassel out of more embroidery floss.

upcycle broken belt, recycle, blah to TADA!, crafts, black belt, bag charm, beads, tassel
Then added this at the end of the key chain, looping it through the end of the string, taking the end of the string all the way back through the beads, to where the last bead meets the leather. Then I made several tight knots and snipped off the remaining string.

Then take off the binder clip as the final step.

upcycle broken belt, recycle, blah to TADA!, crafts, black belt, bag charm, beads, tassel
This key chain is also useful as a bag charm or a zipper pull. TADA!

2 comments:

  1. I have a broken leather strap. I was wondering just yesterday what to do with it. Claire to the rescue, thanks.:-)

    ReplyDelete

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