My little guy wanted a belt. But he hasn't been potty trained long enough to be able to undo a buckled belt without risking an accident. I previously made him a double-D-ring belt (similar to this one), so I knew I could easily make a belt for him, but I needed to find a closure easy enough for him to do independently. What else? Hook and loop. Of course.
How adorable is that belly button?
Oy. I took a zillion pictures, asking him to "Freeze!" each time. These were the best of the bunch.
Seriously, the boy just vibrates all the time. He is never still.
I found an adorable, perfectly-sized fire truck patch, 1) to make it "cool" for a 3 year old and 2) to make it easy for him to differentiate one end from the other. Get it? The fire truck "drives" through the "ring tunnel."
I used a generous 30" for the belt, with about 12" for the hook and loop portion. This way, there is a whole lot of grippy area (so he can't miss) and later, I can adjust the hook and loop to make the belt fit a bigger boy.
I folded and stitched 1/2" at one end, to avoid unraveling. On the other end, I threaded the D-ring, folded over almost an inch and stitched securely. (It helps to leave a little wiggle room for the D-ring, so it's flexible for threading.)
I then wrapped the belt around Little Mister to figure out where to put the hook and loop tape. I sewed around the perimeter of the "hook" piece and sewed around the perimeter of the "loop" piece. (They should be on the same "wrong" side of the belt, where the first end was folded over and stitched.)
Once that was done, I tried it on him to confirm a proper fit and function. Then I sewed around the perimeter of the fire truck patch and it was done. Maybe 15 minutes, probably 10, with help from a preschooler pushing the sewing machine pedal for me. Awesome.
He adores his new belt. He has worn it every day since "we" made it and has had zero problems putting it on, taking it off, and making it to the bathroom in time. This belt style will definitely be going in my Etsy shop...whenever I get around to doing that. :)
