DIY Thrifted Belt Recover with Duct Tape!

DIY Thrifted Belt Recover With Duct Tape!

A few weeks ago, I was shopping at Dollar Tree dollar store in Muskegon and I spotted animal print duct tape for $1! I grabbed a roll of the cheetah, knowing that, beyond a shadow of a doubt, I’d find something to do with it. They also had leopard, tiger and zebra print! I’m sure they are still stocking the tapes, which aren’t the largest roll, but most certainly enough for at least one fun DIY, and you can’t beat that price!

Here’s what I came up with (it took five minutes!!!):

Belt Recover!

I had this old black leather belt lying around (thrifted for .99) and for some reason, it always felt a touch masculine when I would put outfits together with it; it is a woman’s belt, 

but still…

I decided to recover with the duct tape and it was the easiest thing ever!

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What you’ll need:

--Scissors

--A belt to upcycle (try your local thrift store for a cheap item to experiment on!)

--A roll of your choice of printed duct tape (They come in so many awesome options these days. Even black and white damask—what??? Checkout these Amazon.com results!)

First, I lined the belt up with the tape, like so:

As I unrolled the duct tape, I secured it to the sides of the belt and folded over the excess. I did the same to the other side, but trimmed the excess this time at the top carefully. I did not wrap the edges because 1) I didn’t want a seam showing and 2) I didn’t want the tape to begin to “gum” up and either roll up and begin to peel or rub any sort of residue on my clothing.  I carefully pressed the seams down and smoothed it many times with my hands to ensure that it was sticking everywhere and not peeling back at all.

I saved the buckle for last, wrapping the belt loop separately and pushing the tines of the belt buckle through an extra strip of duct tape before securing it around the top, to cover all of the surface.

Last but not least, I felt where the old belt holes had been, and popped the tines through in the appropriate space so that the belt could be buckled. They went through the tape easily and are also hidden well by the animal print!

And…BOOM! Cheetah print belt!  I have already worn this belt with an outfit—I’ll show you in my next blog post!—and I LOVED it. Not only did it stay put, but you could not tell it was recovered with duct tape. I actually showed a few people at work who were completely surprised that I had easily recovered with duct tape so seamlessly.

Try it for yourself!