How to make a soft belt with a buckle

I love buckles without prongs, which make perfect belt sliders. They are easy to sew, easy to fasten, and turn out to be discreet if you have to loosen your belt after a meal. ;)

I made this belt for my retro-inspired dress. It is in a very light yellow colour and I had a plastic buckle in exactly same tone.

Making a retro style handbag - tutorial

Recently I started selling retro handbag handles, made of plastic. Some of them imitate wood to the point that you may have serious doubts as to what they are actually made of. But let's stick to the plan, this post was to be a help to those who are not sure how to make a DIY purse using the retro handles.

Apart from the handles we will need some fabric. It may be matching or contrast, I am going to use black handles and some black-and-white fabric for my handbag.

How to make a sew-on duffle coat toggle closure - tutorial

Duffle coats are all the rage, back from 1970 (and 1990s, and... well, they ARE practical and men love their casual sporty air). Today I am going to show you how to make a complete sew-on closure for a duffle coat, using toggle buttons and leather. We will also need some leather straps or similar.

First you need to decide on the shape of the leather pads. They may be square (that's the easiest to cut) or triangular and rounded on the corners. This is my favourite, though I prefer elongated triangles personally, like those you can see in the pictures above. If you are not inspired to design your own shape, you can use the measurement from the picture below to trace them onto your leather.

Button stamps

Dear all,

Until recently, I used to buy the button stamps for envelope decor on Etsy, from other sellers - something very practical and time saving. But then I asked my stamp provider if she could carve one specially for me. She said she was very busy and could not carve any custom stamps...

But I am actually grateful for that because that's when I decided to try my hand at stamp carving.

How to attatch a buckle with a prong to a belt

Generally, I prefer slider buckles, not because they are easier to sew, but because they do not require making all these little holes along the belt. Plus you can loosen it slightly while at a big dinner (something so typical in Spain...) in a very discreet way ;)

But today I want to show you how to deal with the other kind of buckles, those with prongs. It works both or metal and plastic prongs, as these can sometimes cannot be removed without braking them.

I know two ways of attaching a buckle to a belt. In the first one you have to consider the prong while making the belt itself.