Thread: Thickness of belt; how much does it matter?

I'm getting ready to do some serious planning on my first belt. (Actual work will be done on my ghawazee jacket for an upcoming event.) I'm reading about "if you want extra thickness," "buckram," and terms like this.

How thick DO I want my belt? ..c::

I'm going to make it two pieces, laced at the sides for future flexibility. Obviously I'll need a bit of rigidity at the edges for grommets, but I don't know about the thickness issue.

Do I want it thicker than it has to be for the grommets? I'm thinking uniform thickness may prevent folding, but I doubt it will fold where I'm wearing it.

Any tips, suggestions or thoughts are so welcome!

I like to make my belts not too stiff. For the first two belts I made, I followed instructions from costume books. I made the base with heavy weight fabric reinforced with buckram, fusable interfacing and padding and the second reinforced with fusable interfacing and padding only and those turned out to stiff for my taste, not comfortable.

I looked at my ready mades and those are made with just interfacing, 4 or more layers. I figured if those can hold the weigt of lots of beading and heavy layers of fringe, my self made belts also don't need all the layers of buckram/fusable interfacing/padding.

I now make them with two layers of denim/jeans fabric and two layers of medium weight non fusable interfacing for bead heavy costumes and one layer of denim and two layers interfacing for lighter costumes. They hold the weight of the decorations very well and are still flexible and comfortable.

Also I like my belts to lay smooth and I have a big difference (7") between upper hip and lower hips measurements and thick belts on me ussually gap at the top.

For the base I would consider the weight/amount of decoration and maybe use grosgrain or another kind of non stretch strong ribbon to reinforce the places where the grommets will be.

Hi Nadya,

Which grommet size are you going for? If you're planning to use 8mm, they can easily accomodate two layers of denim, plus top fabric and lining. However, 8mm gormmets are very conspicuous on a belt and tend to make your belt look more heavy duty/industrial. If you're lucky enough to find black grommets and your top fabric is black though, you may be able to get away with. (Just keep in mind that lacings for 8mm grommets will need to be substantial, or use ribbon, *at least* 1/2 inch wide).

If you want the more delicate look of 4mm grommets, then your belt base will need to be significantly thinner. How much beading/decorating are you putting on the belt? Fringe? If you're not putting much on the belt you might be able to get away with it, esp. if your top fabric is non stretch. If your top fabric is stretch and you're planning to put a lot of stuff on it, not having a strong enough base means that the fabric will pull away from the grommets.

Mind you, I say this but I have never used anything but 4mm and 8mm grommets. There may other sizes in between but I've never seen them in the various sewing stores that I frequent.

That being said, there's another potential solution. I'm not sure what it's called but it is a ribbon of fabric folded upon itself that has grommets already on it. It works nicely, esp. on long pieces like dresses and skirts (I did lots of medieval stuff before. *g*) It is solid, within reason of course. It's pricey though, around 15$-20$ CDN/yard. I've seen it in black with 4mm silver grommets and black with 4mm brass grommets. The idea is that you would sew the ribbon between the layers of your belt, thus you can have the look of smaller grommet even if your base is thicker than regular 4mm grommets would allow.

Hope that makes sense and HTH.

Kem.

I've seen grommets at Michael's or Hobby Lobby, they were dark, as is my belt. I have no idea what mm they were. I guess I should start taking notes where I found what, huh?

Originally Posted by nadyasidhe

I guess I should start taking notes where I found what, huh?

LOL Yes! Especially if you're buying often and from different places. Nothing more frustrating than missing a few bits to finish up a costume and having to go to a bunch of places bc you don't remember where you got it.

Depending on the project, I've gotten away with thick upholstery fabric doubled over. It's flexible and strong.

RE: grommets from a craft store

These grommets are not really heavy enough to take a lot of abuse, they are really eyelets and will pull through the fabric with too much force. What you need are grommets made for corsets. I made an underbust corset this past year and had good luck buying supplies from:
http://www.corsetmaking.com/CMSpages/CMShome.html

I got one of the $21 grommet setting kits (now sure if it was size 0 or 00) and used it with a rubber mallet I had and it worked great, though I was only punching through two layers of heave twill cotton. You could make a thinner strip at the edges for the grommets instead of setting them into the edges of the belt. Tips: make a mock up so you know how much force to use (I punched a nice hole right though my fabric!) and do it on a hard surface or else you can't get the force to get the grommet to bend together(scroll down):
Grommet Setting Tools - Corset Making Supplies: Delicious LLC

I must admit, I found setting grommets to be a way to get rid of some stress. If I was going to be doing lots of work with them I'd get the pricier setter but the little kit was good for what I needed.