Point of View and Summer Treasures Belt Tutorial

Welcome to the July Point of View reveal! First, I would like to introduce you to our new Point of View member Leanne from Organize and Decorate Everything. I think she's going to make a great addition to the group. Also, our guests this month are Michele from Michele Made Me and Carolina from Always Expect Moore. Thanks for joining us, ladies!

The theme for July is "summer". Here are the Point of View summer-themed projects...

Jonie from Just Between Friends

Amy from Ameroonie Designs

Gwen from Gwenny Penny (scroll down to find the tutorial for my Summer Treasures Belt)

Leanne from Organize and Decorate Everything

Carolina from Always Expect Moore

Michele from Michele Made Me

Such a wide variety of projects this month. Love it! You can check out each of the projects by visiting the individual blogs listed above, and scroll down here to see the tutorial for my Summer Treasures Belt.

Do you have a "summer" project that you would like to share? We would like to invite you to join the Point of View Summer Link Party over at Organize and Decorate Everything. Any idea that you feel relates to summer is welcome at the link party. And remember, it doesn't have to be a new project. If you have something in your archives that's summer-related, link it up! We want to see any and all summer ideas. But before you do that, I'd like to share my Summer Treasures Belt tutorial with you...

I love these cute little belts! I made one for each of my girls. It's a belt with a tiny pouch for holding little shells, rocks, money for the ice cream truck, a ticket for the carousel... all the essential little treasures that are important to kids in the summertime.

One of the nice things about this project is that the belt can be worn alone or with the pouch. Would your kids love one of these? Here's the how-to...

Materials:

• fabric for the belt
• exterior fabric for the pouch
• interior fabric for the pouch
• fusible fleece
• lightweight fusible interfacing
• 2 D-rings (1")
• 1" piece of hook and loop tape
• thread
• iron
• disappearing or water-soluble marking pencil or pen

Instructions:

Step 1: Start by making the belt. There are several D-ring belt tutorials out there, and there are even instructions on the back of the D-ring package. This is how I made mine: Measure around the child's waste and add 7". We'll call this Measurement A. Cut your belt fabric 3.5" wide by Measurement A long. Cut a piece of fusible fleece 1.75" wide by (Measurement A minus 1") long.

Step 2: To make the belt, you're going to create a giant piece of bias tape. Take your fabric and press in half lengthwise, wrong sides together. Open it back up and press one long edge into the center crease. Press the other long edge into the center crease.

Step 3: Open the fabric up and center your fusible fleece inside the fabric. There should be about 1/2" of space on either end. Fuse the fleece to the fabric following the manufacturer's instructions. Take both short ends of your fabric strip and press them in about 1/2". Press the long edges of your fabric back into the center.

Fold the entire piece in half lengthwise again and press really well. Your fabric strip should be about 7/8" wide now.

Step 4: Pin the entire length of your fabric strip together. Topstitch around all 4 sides (both short ends and both long sides) about 1/8" from the edge.

Step 5: Take one end of your fabric strip and slip it through both D-rings. Fold the end over about 1" to hold the D-rings. Stitch the fold closed about 1/8" from the end of the strip. Go over it two or three times to reinforce it. Now you have a belt!

Step 6: Now to make the tiny treasures pouch. You need to cut one piece of exterior fabric, one piece of interior fabric, and two interfacing pieces in each of these sizes... 3.5" x 6.5" and 2.5" x 2.5". Iron the interfacing to the wrong side of each piece of exterior and interior fabric.

Step 7: Take your 3.5" x 6.5" piece of exterior fabric and measure down about 1.5" from one of the short sides. Mark this point. Find a round object (like a cup or a small bowl) that you can trace around to get the rounded edge from the mark you just made up to the short edge of the fabric (see photo below for clarification). Mark this rounded edge and cut out. Repeat for the 3.5" x 6.5" piece of interior fabric.

Step 8: Take your 3.5" x 6.5" piece of interior fabric and lay it down right side up. Measure down about 1/2" from the top of the curve. Place the top of one half of your hook and loop tape at this point. Center the hook and loop tape horizontally and sew to the right side of your interior fabric.

Step 9: Place your 3.5" x 6.5" pieces of exterior and interior fabric right sides together. Sew around the outside edge using a 1/4" seam allowance. Leave a 2" opening along the bottom for turning. Clip the corners and the curve along the top. Turn right side out and press, making sure to press in the raw edges of the opening along the bottom. Topstitch along the bottom about 1/8" from the edge to close your opening. Set this piece aside. This piece will eventually become your pouch.

Step 10: Take your 2.5" square pieces of exterior and interior fabric and place right sides together. Sew around the outside edge using a 1/4" seam allowance, leaving a 1.5" opening on one side for turning. Clip corners and turn right side out. Press, making sure to press in the raw edges of the opening.

Step 11: Grab your pouch piece and lay it out with the exterior fabric facing up. Measure down 1.5" from the top of the curve. This is where the top of your square piece from Step 10 will go. Center the square horizontally, with the exterior fabric facing up. Make sure that the opening you left for turning in the square is either at the top or the bottom. Pin the square to your pouch piece. Sew the square to your pouch piece along the top and bottom edges of the square about 1/8" from the edges. DO NOT sew along the left and right sides of the square.

Step 12: With the exterior fabric still facing up, measure 1/8" up from the bottom of your pouch piece. This is where the bottom of the other piece of hook and loop tape will line up. Center the hook and loop tape horizontally and sew to the pouch piece.

Step 13: Flip your pouch piece over so that the interior fabric is facing up. Take the bottom edge and fold it up about 2.25". Press. Pin in place. Topstitch along the left side, around the curve of the flap, and along the right side about 1/8" from the edge. I added a little button embellishment to the flap of my pouches, which you can do at this point if you'd like.

Now just slip your belt through the loop on the back of the pouch, and you're done!

OK, now you can run over to the Point of View Summer Link Party at Organize and Decorate Everything :) I'll be featuring some of your summer projects in a post next week. Hope to see you at the party!




I'm linking up...