Recycled T-Shirt Belt

Making a belt out of old t-shirts is easy and thrifty. Just pick up some D rings from a craft store or even Wal-Mart, or maybe you have an old belt of a style you don't care for anymore that you can re-use the rings for this project.

I chose a T-shirt that I didn't wear anymore because it was too stretched out nut I still loved the colors in it. I wanted a skinny belt to just add some detail to my waist with another top, but you can easily make a much thicker belt by cutting/ripping thicker pieces from the T-shirt.

Measure your waist and take that number and times it by 2.5. That is the length that you need to allow to rip from the t-shirt so that you can accomodate the braiding, My shirt was a loose fit and baggy one, so you might need to get a shirt from someone a size or two bigger from you to make this.

Rip the fabric (or cut, depending upon the fabric) your desired width and a length that is 2.5x your waist.

Fold over the fabric over the flat edge of one of the D rings with about a 2" tail. Sew this down just below the edge of the D ring. Then place the other D ring on the opposite side of the tail and fold the tail through the 2nd D ring. Stitch this in place. Trim away any extra fabric.

Now you can braid your belt. When you get near the end, try on your belt to see how much further you need to braid. When you have your desired length, tie off the end (or you could stitch it over if you wanted) and trim the ends.