How To Make A Leather Belt

It’s an item most of us wear every day, and it’s also one worth considering making yourself. In this leather belt tutorial I take you through my entire process, step by step, with very detailed photos and explanations. With only a few simple tools and a cutting of leather, you can make your own leather belt in no time at all…well maybe an hour or two with some practice. First you are going to want to figure out the belt size needed.

The easiest way to do this is to take a belt you already own, put it on, cinch it to your favorite belt hole, and measure all the way around. In this tutorial, I am going to start from the ground skin up. To do this - you must measure around the hips where your belt would actually sit, with the measuring tape against the skin.

Record that measurement and save it for later on. Now we need to create a straight edge on the leather to rest the strap cutter against. Lay your leather out flat, mark a long straight line on one side, about 45 inches for waists that measure 32 inches. Add an inch for each inch bigger of waist size. Cut down that straight line with your razor. At each end of your cut, make a perpendicular cut - this will allow the strap cutter to enter and exit the leather.

On your strap cutter - first set the thickness knob so that the 8-9 oz leather will fit through it. Then set the width to your liking. On my belts I make them all 1 1/4 inch wide, this fits the particular belt buckle that I include with them. Press the straight edge side of the leather against the strap cutter and slowly feed the leather into the cutter. Always make sure the side of the leather is pressed against the cutter as this will make for a nice parallel cut.

Once the leather comes out the other end of the cutter, grab it with your free hand and help pull it, while also pulling the cutter towards you. Take this step nice and slow. Every time I have tried to speed things up - I ended up with a long piece of cut leather that varied in width and was unusable.

When you screw up a belt - that’s quite a bit of unusable leather! Laid out are my hardware options. On the left I have line 20 snaps for a removable buckle, in the center are rivets if you prefer permanence, and an antiqued classic metal buckle. Now that the length of leather has been cut out, it’s time to mark the placement of holes on the tail end. For this step it is easiest to use an existing belt for reference, or just refer to the photo above for general placement.

The longer hole is where the fold occurs and where the buckle rod sticks out. I used 5/64 for the snap holes. Go ahead and punch out the holes, and shape the tail end. In order for the tail end to fold over itself and snap together to hold the buckle and loop - I have skived off about half of the thickness starting just above the top hole. I skive dry. Go slow, and make shallow cuts.

Fold the skived leather end over itself with the buckle in place. Now we can measure the actual length of the belt. … and measure 3 inches beyond the skin measurement you took previously. In this case - I measured the skin at 31.5 inches, so I would then make a mark at 34.5 inches.

This is the spot where the center hole will go on the belt. For these belt holes I used 9/64 . Make two more holes on either end of the center hole at one inch apart. This allows for some breathing room at thanksgiving, and some tightening up during your new year’s resolution workout. About 4 inches beyond the last hole, make a mark. This will be the tip of the belt.

I use a special punch to cut out the tip of the belt so that it is uniform every time. However - this step can easily be done with a razor or leather scissors. Every time I make a belt I pretty much always forget to cut out the belt loop. It’s like a mini belt within the belt, meant to hold the tip close to your body.