HOWTO: A guide to making a canvas belt

[firebladejedi[TK]]

Hi i posted this on the UKG over the weekend and thought i would share with everyone here too.

 

Here?s a quick guide to making a canvas belt for your storm trooper armour as an upgrade to something more movie accurate. This took me about two hours this morning to make this including stopping to take pictures, so it is not a long job.

 

Ingredients;

 

Tee Kay armour belt

Heavy duty canvas 60 inch wide is best for this

3 meters of 3 inch wide elastic

2 inch wide velcro

Camping snaps or rivets

A piece of plastic 2/12 x 8 inch

Scissors and a sewing machine and white cotton

 

 

Method;

 

Ok first thing to do is measure around your waist to see how long the belt is going to be. I made mine 1 ? meters in length and cut off the extra at the ends when I was finishing the belt. This gave me an overlap of about 12 inches which is plenty.

 

 

Cut 2 strips of the 3 inch wide elastic to the required length and sew the two pieces together down the sides using the big zig-zag stitch leaving the ends open for now. I only sewed the sides once as you will go over these edges several times by the time you sew the rest of the belt together.

 

 

Then put the armour belt in the middle of the elastic belt and measure and mark the outside with a pencil. Sew down the belt along these lines using a straight stich, this is for the plastic insert added later on to support the holster. On mine this was about 20 inches in from the end of the elastic.

 

 

Then cut two strips of the canvas the same length but slightly wider than the elastic, you will cut this extra off after stitching the two parts together.

 

 

Using the zig-zag stitch again sew the canvas to the elastic down the sides, I?ve sewn each side twice to give it extra support.

 

 

Then cut off the excess canvas nice and close to the elastic and sew this side as well. Remember to leave the ends open as you sew the canvas to the elastic.

 

 

Repeat this again on the other side of the belt.

 

 

You should now have something that looks like this.

 

 

Next using the piece of plastic were going to make an insert to support the weight of the holster to stop the canvas being pulled down or collapsing. Measure the distance between the two loops that usually go over the belt, im guessing all holsters will be different in size. My piece is 8 inches long and to fit inside the elastic 2 ? inch wide. Round off the edges so it doesn?t snag the belt and simply slide inside the middle of the two elastic pieces and push all the way in until it stops. Remember you sewed the straight lines in earlier to keep it in place.

 

 

Now its time to trim the belt to size. I cut just a couple of inches off each side so that there is about eight inches of overlap that will secure the belt at the back. Sew up the ends and now its time to ad the Velcro.

[firebladejedi[TK]]

I could only find 2 inch wide Velcro at my local haberdashery and I bought the self adhesive kind, although I did sew around the edges so it was more secure.

 

 

I put the soft part of the Velcro on the right side and the ruff part on the left side (as you wear the belt) which goes on top so that if any of the Velcro shows nothing gets stuck to it.

 

As I had to use 2 inch Velcro when I stuck the thin and thick parts on the belt I offset them against the opposite hook and loop so that the velcro wont be pulled off when I undo the belt.

 

 

Sew around the edges and there you are, all done.

 

 

I used poppers to attach everything to the belt including the armour belt, holster and drop boxes to make storage easier and the thermal detonator will be held on using money clips.

 

 

 

Finshed and ready for duty.......... end of transmission

[SuperTrooper]

Excellent tutorial. Thanks

[bobby fletcher]

great guide where were you when i need this lol

[Daetrin[Admin]]

So good, it's now pinned as a HOWTO. Great job

[Darksaber212[TK]]

Great tutorial!

[Dishnu]

Ok what is the Elastic for in between the canvas is it to provide additional support?

[Tech151[TK]]

You forgot a step: remove cute little kitties from the pile of fabric and away from the measuring tape.

[firebladejedi[TK]]

Ok what is the Elastic for in between the canvas is it to provide additional support?

 

 

Yes it is, without the elastic the belt would be very thin and not able to support the armour belt and holter or the TD. This way the belt is nice and strong but also light weight and will withstand plenty of trooping.

[Dashrender[501st]]

I picked up my canvas today, but they only had the sandy color. I am looking for the correct delusion of bleach to water to bleach this material.

 

Thanks.

[TK_Margarita]

You forgot a step: remove cute little kitties from the pile of fabric and away from the measuring tape.

 

Great tutorial! LOVED the kitties in the pics- I'm sure they were VERY helpful during the project

[jmgordon7]

Sweet, I'll definitely have to use this tut for my belt. Thanks a lot

[Daric LaRone[501st]]

firebladejedi said:

Hi i posted this on the UKG over the weekend and thought i would share with everyone here too.

 

 

 

Hey Mark,

I'm just finding this and totally plan to follow the excellent tutorial. Here comes the dumb question... wait for it... Do I just pick up plain white canvas like at a fabric store? Or is there a particular color I need to look for to satisfy Elite status? Thanks so much!

Peace,

Derek

[ThayNerd[TK]]

Hey Mark,

I'm just finding this and totally plan to follow the excellent tutorial. Here comes the dumb question... wait for it... Do I just pick up plain white canvas like at a fabric store? Or is there a particular color I need to look for to satisfy Elite status? Thanks so much!

Peace,

Derek

 

 

They also call it duck cloth and they sell it at any fabric store. I got mine at Joann's, oh and I picked up white duck cloth.

[firebladejedi[TK]]

Plain natural or bleached white canvas are both accepted for FISD Elite status

[Daric LaRone[501st]]

Thanks guys! Closer, getting closer... to 501st membership and FISD ANH Elite status...

Here's a totally unrelated (but somewhat related) question maybe for Daetrin or Terrell or another officer... Have you thought about a yearly get-together for all FISD members? You may already do this (unbeknownst to us newbies) or the logistics may just be impossible (I'm in north Georgia, and I see that Daetrin is in Wash. state, and Terrell is in Michigan... of course now that I think about it many members are overseas! Egocentric American ) . Or members may see each other quite enough at troops and conventions and the like.

I just think it would be cool to meet all you guys and gals, check out each other's kit in person, buy the FISD t-shirt, etc. Just a thought.

Peace,

Derek

[4505 Marcel]

The fabric is called cotton Drill here in the UK, great tutorial Mark Although me thinks you maybe doing yourself out of work

[johnnymac]

Great tutorial. I made one this past weekend. Looks great. I'm having a hard time getting snapps to go through 2 layers of canvas, 2 layers or elastic, and a layer of ABS. I'm curently using some threadable posts. But I'm hopefully going to get the snaps to fit. VERY tight squeeze. Thanks again for you tutorial. Couldn't have done it without it!

[firebladejedi[TK]]

Hi John im glad this helped you with your belt. I find there are 2 types of camping snap, some with long posts and some with a shorter post that will go through everything if you pinch it all up really tight.

 

Cheers fbj

[Tiepilot1138[TK]]

Have you experimented to try to use multiple layers of canvas instead of the elastic? I guess that would be 4 layers of canvas. I picked up some white denim to try this with. Just waiting for my belt to show up to start.

[firebladejedi[TK]]

Yes tom i have made belts using multiple layers of canvas just like the originals but did not like the out come. They were messy and not even and didnt look as good as my way using the elastic as a base to work from.

 

The great thing about doing them my way is that when you sew along the edge of the elastic you get a near perfect straight line and then when you trim the other side and sew that part, again you have a nice neat line to follow.

 

But if you want to try the screen used way and it turns out great then thats fine too. I remember there should be 5 layers if your going that route.

 

Cheers mark.

[Tiepilot1138[TK]]

I just test fitted my belt, now that it's completed, and it doesn't work. Everything attaches fine when laid flat, but when I wrap it around my ab & kidney plates, the snaps pop off. It looks like when worn, the outer snaps on the armor belt are now too far apart to stay connected. Have you experienced this? I think the snaps need to be measured out once it's wrapped around you.

[firebladejedi[TK]]

No not really but i know what you are saying. Sometimes when marking where to put the snaps and then adding the hole and then the snap it can move a little from where you wanted it.

 

If they keep popping undone you can put a little hot glue in the snap to hold it in place. I do this to any snap that i dont want to undo while trooping but can get them apart if needed.

[troopermaster]

Best to mark your holes for the snaps while wearing your canvas belt on your armour and placing the plastic ammo belt on top. You'll find that the holes are a shorter distance apart than when laying flat.

 

My advice is to attach the ammo belt middle snap to the middle snap on your canvas while wearing it and then mark where you want the snaps on the canvas.

[Tiepilot1138[TK]]

Best to mark your holes for the snaps while wearing your canvas belt on your armour and placing the plastic ammo belt on top. You'll find that the holes are a shorter distance apart than when laying flat.

 

My advice is to attach the ammo belt middle snap to the middle snap on your canvas while wearing it and then mark where you want the snaps on the canvas.

 

That's what I thought I'd try. Unfortunately I think the holes in the belt now are too close to where the new ones need to be, so I might have to redo the whole thing. I at least need to redo the outer canvas layer so the old holes don't show.