DIY Faux Leather Bag to Peplum Belt

I’ve had this faux leather slouchy bag lying around for a while and decided to transform it into a versatile belt. I love the peplum trend but don’t really want every single item of clothing in my wardrobe to feature this feminine shape. If you want to try your hand at this project but you don’t have anything to reuse the fabric from, you could just purchase the fabric or use any other kind of thick fabric that will hold its shape.

For this DIY you will need:

•    Faux Leather bag or fabric (approx. 1 square metre)
•    Baking paper or brown paper (something cheap to draft a pattern onto)
•    Pencil or marker
•    Tape measure
•    Fabric scissors
•    Sticky tape
•    Sewing needle for hand stitching
•    Sewing machine and thread
•    Bias binding (of your chosen width and colour)
•    Iron
•    Craft glue
•    Lace trim or any other kind of decorative trim (optional)
•    Thin waist belt

Using fabric scissors, chop out the leather panels from the bag and lay flat.  Put to the side.

Tape three strips of baking/brown paper together to create a flat sheet (approx. one square metre) to draft a donut shape on.

Using a tape measure, measure the circumference of your waist. Using the formula: circumference= pi (3.14157) X d (diameter), work out the diameter (length from one side of circle to the other) of your circle to create the inner circle of the peplum belt.

Draw that circle in the middle of the paper using the tape measure to accurately measure from the centre point to the outer edges.

Decide how long you want your peplum belt to be. I was limited by the amount of fabric from the bag so I measured approximately 16cm from the edge of the first circle.

Mark this second circle using the tape measure and centre point of the first circle.

Now that you have your donut (to-be-peplum) shape, cut it out. Cut out the centre circle also. Fold into four equal parts and cut on the folds to create four identical pattern pieces.

Trace this shape onto the fabric and cut out.

   

Sew the four parts of the circle together to create the donut shape leaving an opening between two of the quarters.

To make the waistband, create a rectangle shape on the left over paper measuring ¼ of your waist measurement by double the thickness that you want your waste band. Mine measured 16cm X 7cm.

 

Cut out four of these rectangles from the remaining fabric. Sew the four pieces together to form the waistband.

Using a sewing machine, attach the waistband to the inner edge of the peplum belt. Try to line up the seams of the belt and the waistband as it will be visable. 

With the waistband attached, I chose to edge the belt with bias binding to add another element of texture and also to keep the hem of the belt clean and polished.

Iron the bias binding in half as accurately as possible. Sew onto the open edges of the belt as well as the hemline.

Fold the waistband in half and hand sew the raw edge to the seam inside (the one that secured the waistband to the peplum frill). You could sew this with a sewing machine however the result is cleaner if done by hand.

  

To soften the edgy leather look, I added a lace trim around the seam of the waistline. Use craft glue to attach to add it to the peplum belt. (This step is totally optional.)

The waistband of this belt is designed to have another thin belt fed through the opening. Use a slim waist belt to add this cute little design to any boring outfit to give it a completely new look!

 

I had lots of fun creating this belt. There is so much experimenting you could do with this project as you use different fabrics, belts or embellishments. This leather piece could be added to any top or dress to give it a fresh look. 

              

Let me know what you think or to give some feedback about the tutorial. I would love to read your comments.

Love,

Holly x