How to Make Your Own Vegan Leather Belt

How to make a vegan leather belt?

The use of animal leather has a particularly controversial history, especially since it’s questionable and problematic when we consider the aspect of sustainability. Leather is regarded as a durable material for it has the capability to withstand wear and tears for decades, making leather items ideal to pass on to generations as heirlooms or secondhand gifts. While this is true, the process that goes into making leather is far from ethical & is not cruelty free. Many leather products are manufactured from dead animals’ skins, accounting for about 14.5 percent of human-made greenhouse gasses that are emitted per year.

Alternatives

Because of this, many people sought ethical alternatives that still retain some of the leather’s best perks, thus the existence of Vegan leather. Vegan Leather is probably the next best thing you should have as part of your style. Compared to real leather, Vegan leather is cruelty-free, good for animals, and uses only eco-friendly materials while making sure it’s chic and stays in style.

Make a Vegan Belt

Not only that, but you can also make your own vegan belt. The steps are relatively easy to follow, and all you have to do is have the necessary materials needed during the process. This makes for an excellent way for you to make a sustainable fashion vegan leather belts from your own effort while feeling fulfilled.

If you’re interested, read on as we discuss what you need to know about vegan leather belts, where you can buy it, and the step-by-step processing of making your own vegan belt to add to your collection of vegan leather belts.  If you get on it, you could be wearing a homemade vegan belt by tomorrow.

What’s Vegan Leather?

Vegan Leather belts are typically made from the polymer polyurethane, which can be made to order on the go for any designer who wishes to procure it. At the same time, vegan leather is also made from sustainable and innovative materials such as apple peels, cork, pineapple leaves, recycled plastic, and more natural products that put the use of animal skins to deep shame.

PETA

This is also why PETA stands so firmly with its stance regarding how there should be no animal by-products used in manufacturing and instead supports the use of vegan leather for items and products such as vegan leather jackets, vegan leather belts, among many other things. One example is PETA’s stylish and cactus-made vegan leather belts. There are also increasing designers and businesses that adopt vegan leather for different items such as vegan leather seats, vegan belts, bags, or shoes. Vegan leather is simply proof that you can make products and items that perfectly combine fashion and sustainability at the same time. Vegan leather belts display head-turner and killer looks without any actual killing involved in the process, making you feel good while wearing it!

Where to buy Vegan Leather?

Before you begin making vegan belts, you’d of course have to know where you can procure vegan leather as a first step. That being said, one of the best places you can buy Vegan leather is from an Amazon store called Nats Leather. Nat Leathers is a business selling a wide selection of PETA-approved Vegan leather, which you can use for making your next vegan belts. Depending on what kind of vegan leather you want to purchase, you can choose from a variety of colors and textures from black pebble grain, Brown Tan, Nude Vegetable Tanned, British Tan 2-Tone, Navy Blue, or Light Tan Blonde.

Other Suppliers

While Nats Leather on Amazon is one of the most affordable and recommended stores you can buy from, there are plenty of eco-friendly vegan leather suppliers out there that you can purchase from to help you make your own vegan leather belts.

Notable Businesses

You can easily find these businesses and stores through a simple Google search, though some notable mentions are Desserto, Bananatex, Mylo by Bolt Threads, and Apple Leather.

Chemicals

Synthetic leather-like vegan belts are produced with various chemicals and a distinctly different industrial process than real leather. Here, the plastic coating is bonded to a fabric backing to make faux leather vegan belts. The types of plastic utilized in such coatings differ and are usually the basis for whether or not the product is eco-friendly.

How can I make my own vegan leather belt?

With all the information you learned, you might be considering giving a long-awaited upgrade to your belt collection. For this, you have a few worthy options. First, you can support vegan belt brands that undergo ethical processes, though they may lean more on the pricier and costly side if you choose to go with this option. Another one is by sifting through accidentally vegan belts in different mainstream stores, but the downside to this is that it may take a long time for you to find one. But of course, there’s always the choice of making one of your own! With easy-to-procure materials and simple steps, you can easily create one according to your style, taste, and preferences for vegan leather belts.

Buy a Vegan Leather Belt instead

There are plenty of materials involved in the cruelty-free process of making belts.  Choose from the wide variety selection of belts offered here at Cruelty Free Belts. Especially, if making vegan leather belts seems too complicated to you then you can shop to buy one of these vegan belts’ products instead:

 Vegan leather belts

Made of 100% cruelty-free and animal-free materials. This material does a great job of mimicking the look and functions of real leather may be produced using plant-based and artificial materials, making it a more sustainable option than real leather.

 Cork Belts

Biodegradable and natural, Cork belts are made of cork, one of the most eco-friendly and vegan materials available. Cork belts work great because they don’t crumble or crack since the suppleness and quality of cork products are on par with leather materials. Moreover, they’re also water-repellent and stain or scratch resistant, unlike real leather.

 Canvas Belts

Canvas belts are made of canvas material that is durable and lightweight, and convenient to wear. Like leather, canvas belts can last for many years and are a great, classy addition to your wardrobe while sticking to sustainable fashion.

 Recycled material Belts

Belts made from recycled materials are also an eco-friendly and ethical option since they don’t involve slaughtering animals during the manufacturing work.

Other Supplies to make a Vegan Leather Belt

You’ll also need to find vegan/faux leather belt making tools such as these at the right price:

•  Punch set
•  Rivets or Chicago Screws
•  Buckle Hardware
•  Fabri Tac
•  Omni Grid Ruler
•  Rotary Cutter
•  Sharp leather Needle

Steps to Make Vegan Leather Belt

If you have all the necessary items needed to make your own belt, simply see and follow this procedure:

Step 1. Do your measurements. Measure your waist so that you’ll have a rough estimate of how long your belt will be. You can also add an allowance of 10 inches for the tail and what you will need to fold over.

Step 2. After this, cut two pieces of your vegan leather material. Using an Omni grid will help to create a neat line instead of jagged. By now, you’ll have at least two 32″ pieces of faux leather. You might also want to cut an additional piece 2/8″ x 1″ or more depending on how polished you want the finished result to be. As soon as you make sure that your edges are straight, proceed to the next step.

Step 3. Put glue on one end, and then combine the pieces together so that you can cut the ends of your strips to make them rounded. This will be the end that you’re going to tuck within your belt loops. You can also leave them as it is if that’s what you prefer.

Step 4. Sew your strips together using a long stitch length while allowing about ⅛” from the edge. Remember to backstitch after this.

Step 5. By now, you will already have a singular long strip of vegan leather. At this step, you may want to measure yourself again to ensure that your belt doesn’t have any excess or be crazy long. After this, measure two inches for the non-rounded end, and use your punch set to put two overlapping holds to make one oblong-shaped hole. This area is where the prong to your own buckle will go. For this, it’s wise to ensure that it’s oval-shaped, or else it won’t have enough space to move.

Step 6. Use your tiny strips and sew them up as you did with your belt. With one strip now, sew the short ends on the right sides at about ¼ inches.

Step 7. Put the loop at the end of the punched strip, then add your buckle and prong. Fold the belt tail under and push the loop close to your buckle.

Step 8. Get your punch set and make a hole from the end of your belt with one central hole through all layers.

Step 9. You can either use your Chicago screw or rivets or opt to sew across the belt width while backstitching along the way. Now that your loop is pushed towards the belt’s buckle punch one more hold for the last rivet. This holds your belt loop still and secures the folded tail.

Step 10. Finally, mark the original measurement from where your belt is folded around your buckle. After this, you now have your own faux leather vegan belt, which you can pair with any fashion dress or top!

Perhaps you’re like us here at Cruelty Free Belts and are a little crazy about Vegan Leather Belts.  If this is you, we recommend reading some of our related blog posts: “The 10 Best Reasons Why a Genuine Leather Belt is Worse than a Vegan Leather Belt“, “Cactus Leather – More Prick but Less Harm to Animals“, “Vegan Belts – the Ethical Real Leather Free Alternative“, “Vegan Belts make an Ethical Difference“, “Vegan Leather vs Real Leather – What’s the Best Option?“, “Non Leather Belt – the Cruelty Free Difference it Makes“, and “Are Vegan Leather Belts Better than Real Leather Belts?”