I absolutely love layers. One of my favorite ways to layer are socks under knee high boots. But honestly, I hate tucking my jeans into a giant sock. Doesn’t everyone? It gets bunchy and uncomfortable. So here’s a much easier way to get the look.
Feel free to accessorize however you like.
So cute and stylish and much easier then stuffing your leg and jeans into a tight sock.
I’ve been so inspired by these gorgeous belts I’ve seen this year.
marc jacobs
although this is a cuff, it was one of my inspirations
asos
So when I decided to do a belt as a tutorial, I posted it on FB and a reader suggested using recycled leather and I thought it was genius! So in my weekly trip to the thrift store I found this deep eggplant leather skirt.
My first step was taking the skirt apart. You can do it with scissors or a seam ripper. Then make a template of the belt shape you want to cut out. I made mine as shown out of pattern paper. You can use regular paper, cloth, whatever you have.
Next, lie it out on your leather and trace it.
Cut it out. If you don’t have a sewing machine you can just stop here. This belt will look great even as one piece.
But if you want to do an extra step, you can cut out another piece.
Sew it together, inside out leaving a hold to pull it through. I don’t know if all machines will sew through leather well. Mine does it just fine. Definitely use a leather needle to make it easier.
After pulling the belt right side out, top stitch all the way around.
Now that the base of your belt is made we’ll work on the flower. Cut out a bunch of different petal shapes.
Begin piecing them together, a couple at a time. You can machine stitch them together, like I did. But if you don’ have a machine you can sew it by hand. Or if that intimidates you, there’s always glue 
Just add more until you’re happy with the piece.
Then attach it to your belt.
Now, to cover where you stitched it on, get one more petal and sew it as shown.
Then you can flip it over and no stitched show.
For the closure, I added a heavy duty snap that I sewed on.
Here’s the finished result!
I love the way it looks on this simple maxi dress.
I was really inspired by a couple of these necklaces that I had seen on the runways this year.
After taking a closer look at them I knew I could make something similar.
Here’s what you’ll need from your local hardware store:
-varying sized washers
-bike chain
-gold metal wire
I also needed extra gold chain. You can use anything you have laying around or get some at the craft store. Also, some ribbon.
First, tie a ribbon to make your bike chain connect.
This will be the strong base of your necklace. Next, get your washers.
Spray them gold on both sides.
Now, attach a piece of your chain to the bike chain and begin stringing the washers by wrapping around them once. Do different spacings, different lengths, all the while attaching the chain back and forth with your gold wire. I just would basically tie it to the bike chain then trim off the excess. You can also use jewelry closures if you prefer.
Keep stringing them until you get the heaviness you want for your look.
Look how great the completed project looks!
This entire project cost me about $7 and took me about 20 minutes. I think if I did another I would use a satin ribbon and make the tie a bow on the back so you could var the length of the necklace. I’ve already worn this twice because it’s so versatile.
Who knew bike chains and washers could be so chic?
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