Dare-To-Wear Hardware

After a little household project, Maggie's husband was left with an almost full, 100 count box of washers. What normal person needs that many washers?? A Homemade Mama, that's who! We trolled the internet looking for ideas and came across several sites with tutorials for making necklaces. But with so many washers, Maggie's husband suggested taking the same idea and turning it into a belt instead! Genius!

A word of advice: check out the diagram offered on Tiny Sparkly Things if our directions need some clarifying. This is not an easy project to explain and it was a big help to us!

What You Need:

• metal washers (we used size 3/16" x 1-1/4")
• ribbon
• scissors

Before you start making the actual belt, take your ribbon and measure out the length you want your belt to be, including extra for tying. Then double it (at least!), as you will lose a lot of length as you go. You might also want to singe the ends of your ribbon since they will get a lot of wear and tear as you weave them in and out of the washers.

Now thread your first washer onto your ribbon as shown below. We found that doing this on a flat surface helped us see what we ere doing better, as well as kept the ribbon for twisting on us. Leave 8 or so inches on one end (we will refer to this as the "short end", and will always be on the left side of the pics, as we worked from left to right) to make the tie for your belt.

Then thread the second washer onto the "long end" (on the right), so that it looks like this:

Take your second washer, and tuck it a bit under the first.This is where it might get confusing, so bear with us. Take the long end of your ribbon and thread it through the bottom of your first washer.

Then thread the long end through the top of the second washer and pull tight.

Now thread on a third washer and tuck it a bit under the second washer, like you did above. Repeat the above steps (and, again, look at this diagram if you need more clarifying!!).

Continue adding more washers until you get the desired length of your belt.

To finish the ends, take the end of your ribbon and thread it up and into the hole of the last washer.

Pull tight. Then flip your belt over and repeat with the first washer.

Ta-da! Your belt is done!

Now tie it on and look FABULOUS!