DIY: Gucci Belt Bag
Photo by Brian Rankin
Since October last year I have been working on this bag, and it's finally done! This was my first attempt at making my own belt, which was a bit daunting. Thankfully I was really happy with the brass buckle I had found and the leather paint really helped to keep the edges clean.
Below are my steps, as well as a detailed breakdown of the dimensions. If you do try this please use #madewithwendy so I can see it!
Materials
0.5 m pleather
0.25 m quilt batting
matching thread
fabric glue (this is the one I use)
leather paint (here's a good option)
belt buckle
zipper
leather hole punch (here's a good option)
Dimensions
The ovals were 21 cm x 13.5 cm.
Instructions
1. I marked a rectangle that was 21 x 13.5 cm, then rounded the corners to make an oval shape. After cutting out one side of the oval, I folded it over to trace for symmetry
2. I used this oval as a template to make a second, which will become the back of the bag
3. With a photo of the Gucci bag on my computer, I zoomed in to scale and traced a rough template of the zigzags
4. I further rounded the corners of my ovals so that it had an even distance all the way around the scale tracing
5. My trick for making sure I sew straight lines without leaving any marks on the material is using scotch tape as a guide. I copied the zigzag peaks and valleys to create this tape pattern.
6. To establish the tape pattern, I folded the oval in half to find the centre point and gave that a small snip
7. I taped a guide for the horizontal and vertical centre, and then taped the slanted lines of the zigzag
8. I sewed along the centre of each piece of tape. There's obviously other ways to quilt a surface, but this is what made it possible for me to see the surface I was stitching without leaving marks
9. I took a larger rectangle of material, stacked on some quilt batting, then place the marked oval on top before securing it with clips
10. Before sewing, I did a test stitch on scrap material. I used 3.5 which looked the closest to a leather quilting stitch
11. I started at the edges and went to the peaks of the zigzags, pivoting the needle at those points to change direction.
12. After all the quilting was done, I cut off the excess all the way around. This step added that puffy texture that we see on real leather, I originally did not plan on doing this but I'm so glad I did.
13. Then came the VERY tedious task of removing all the scotch tape, I hated this step so much, but will say it was worth it for the clean lines.
14. TA-DA! This is how one of my ovals looked when done, now one more oval to go.
15. With the bag loops, I glued these wrong sides together to add thickness.
16. The same was done with the belt loops and the belt, you can always trim them to align perfectly after gluing. The belt also should be cut into an arrowhead shape at one end
17. Once the glue dried, I added a stitch all the way around on the bag loops, belt loops, and belt
18. After that I covered the raw edges with the leather paint. The original bag I was imitating had black edges, but I could only buy red at my store. I think it still turned out okay.
19. To finish the bag I had these two quilted ovals, two skinny strips for the zipper top, and one wider strip for the bottom
20. For the zipper top, I clipped the zipper right sides touching to one of the long strips and sewed with a straight stitch
21. Then I clipped the zipper to the other strip and sewed these right sides touching as well
22. I clipped the entire zipper to get it to lie flat, then added a straight stitch on each side to secure the fabric in its folded position
23. I clipped this right sides together to one of the ovals along the top edge and sewed it with a straight stitch
24. With the bottom rectangle, I measured it to reach all the way around the bottom and folded it at the points where it overlaps with the zipper. I added a stitch along these two folds to hold the fold in place
25. Once that was done, I clipped it to the zipper top so I could sew it to the zipper. I was really careful to not sew over the zipper, but just try to cover its ends.
26. Once that was done I trimmed off the excess material. I clipped this to the oval and sewed a straight stitch to complete my journey around the oval
27. The other oval was going to attach to the belt, so I lay down the belt and placed the bag loops over it. I clipped these in place and sewed them with a straight stitch
28. I clipped this oval with the belt loops on the inside to the wall of the bag and sewed all the way around with a straight stitch
29. The last step with the bag was to open the zipper and flip the entire thing so the right side was on the outside
30. Focusing on the belt, I brought two ends together and wrapped the belt loops around so that they were snug, but the belt could still slide.
31. I sewed the belt loops shut based on that fit, this was a little tricky to do with my machine so I recommend turning the wheel by hand and manually moving the loop under the presser foot
32. At the square end of the belt, I used a hole puncher to make a spot for the belt tongue or prong to poke through. The one hole seemed a bit tight, so I added a few neighbouring punches to turn it into a slightly longer opening.
33. Then I clipped the folded belt in place, slid on a belt loop, and clipped it again. I secured all of this in place with two straight stitches, one on each side of the belt loop
34. With the other end of the belt, I punched a hole at my waist's smallest point, then marked a hole every 3 cm. Take your time to punch since there's no undoing a mistake
35. Sliding the belt into the bag loops was so exciting, I was a bit in disbelief that I made my own belt. If you ever do this project and get to this step I hope you feel how I felt!
36. I noticed the bottom of my bag was a bit soft, so I inserted a piece of cardstock and the raw fabric locked it into place. It made a huge difference in the firmness of the bag and was an easy fix
Fabric Glue
Leather Acrylic Paint
Leather Hole Punch