RTW jeans, at least on my girls (and me if I'm telling the whole story), have a tendancy to travel south. Does everyone have this problem? I mean I KNOW I don't have enough butt to keep my pants up, but between the three girls you'd think one of them would have a butt that could do the job. Maiah's in the best shape and that's only because her pants still come with an elasticasized back.
All this to say that it was high time for some cute belts!
With the girls all 2 years apart I wanted the belts to be interchangable. This means that M has a fair amount of extra tail and O has a little less than optimal. It's a trade-off I'm happy to have made, since as it turns out the pink skulls are the clear choice for 2 girls and there's one dog lover that's not giving that one up for anything.
The process to make these is pretty straight-forward but I did learn a few things along the way so I thought I'd share my process and tips.
Gather up your supplies:
- webbing
- ribbon
- jeans needle
- heat n bond, ultrahold
- iron and thread
- D-rings
Measure the waist (or to be more precise the waist/hip area path that the belt will follow). I measured the waist and ended up a little tight on extra length. Add 8" to this measurement. This is the amount of webbing and ribbon you'll need. The webbing I used was 1" wide, found at hobby lobby or hancocks as well as a myriad of online shops.
I tried several options for securing my ribbon to the webbing before sewing. This is an important step because you don't want your ribbon sliding around your webbing while your trying to sew it.
Double sided special scrap-booking tape (it's a little more narrow than standard DS tape) was suggested to me. I picked up some at Michael's and while it would, sort-of, stick to the woven backside of the ribbon it refused to stick to the textured nylon webbing.
Next idea. I had some stitch witchery on hand and I've had good luck using it to secure ribbon to fabric by blasting it with heat. But since I'm working with nylon and didn't really want it melting on me, I tried a medium heat setting. No workey.
For me the heat n bond was, hands down, the product of choice for this project.
First: Iron the heat n bond to the back side of the ribbon then secure the ribbon to the webbing by ironing on med-med high heat and a light weight pressing cloth.
Using your jeans needle, sewing machine, and whichever thread you like (on some I used regular thread, on this dog one I used embroidery thread that's more shiny). Secure the ribbon to the webbing. When using a straight stitch I like to lengthen it a little to a 3.
Be adventurous and go for a decorative stitch sometimes 
I used a match to heat seal all the ends, you could choose to use fray check if you want. I knew I was short on length and also didn't want the extra bullk that turning it under would make.
On the left side on the belt thread it through 2 D-rings, fold down and stitch a square. I made 2 passes for extra security. IMPORTANT: for 1" webbing use 1 1/4" rings, you'll want a little extra room so your belt can move. I tried the 1" rings and felt it was too snug.
On the right hand side of the belt turn the end under and secure with a line of stitching (again I went over it a few times for strength). You can see this in the very top picture. You may also notice that I didn't match my bobbin to the webbing. This is less apparent on the straight stitched belts and more apparent on the thicker, fancier stitches.
One note about using decorative stitches; the pink skull belt was secured with a hemstitch stitch that passes over the same x shape several times. I noticed that my ribbon got a little bunchy in places with all the back and forth. If this bothers you I recommend a 'lighter' decorative stitch.
